War Dog
by Kaiimei
Summary: Akari died...a forgotten soldier in an urban warzone. Suddenly appearing in a new Universe with a floating text-box telling her she was a 'player' was not quite how she envisioned the afterlife, but it definitely beats eternal damnation. Plus, after the stuff she'd been through, she definitely earned the chance to play around. !GamerOC - Rated M for swearing, violence and death
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there boos, w****elcome to War Dog.**

**This is Kaiimei of the future speaking to you right now, I deleted the old AN here because it was stupid. I'm currently in the process of going through the old chapters, fixing any errors I can find, generally making the story flow better, etc.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

**(Warning: the first...6 chapters of this are very similar to DragonKnightRyu's story, Ninja Gamer. After that, I divert in a pretty major way from what he does. After those six chapters, Akari really doesn't do much similar to what DKR's protagonist does. I understand it may be irritating, but when I began writing this, I let myself be influenced by his work far too much, and it shows. After I got into the groove of things though, I diverted from being similar in a major way.**

**And please, don't let chapters 27 and 28 get you down too much. They honestly suck, I need to re-write them, but doing so means re-writing all the way up to about chapter 35 as well, which I don't want to do right now.)**

**_Chapter 1_**

* * *

Flipping her facemask down, Akari inhaled sharply through her nose, a grin forming on her face as she relished the smell of cordite and smoke in the air.

Her ears picked up on the familiar staccato gunfire of a Kalashnikov-pattern rifle kicking off close-by to her position, forcing the grin from her face as she flicked the safety off her own rifle and set off in a quick jog, mindful of her footing on the rubble-strewn streets whilst she shoved her mask back into place. As she jogged, she pulled the bolt of her own rifle she'd picked off a PMC grunt a few weeks ago, her lips quirking up as she saw the fully-loaded magazine staring back up at her blankly.

This was her home. It was a fucked-up place to live, with several separate countries fighting over the massive city, Private Military Companies laying their own claims, but it was home for her now, and she relished every minute she spent there, always toeing the line between living and dying. It was a bit of an odd thing for her to love, but ever since she got stuck in the city, she decided that she could simply say fuck all the laws outside. Within the war-torn city, the only rule was survival of the fittest, and it was a rule she whole-heartedly followed, even if it meant a bit of brutality every now and then to keep herself safe.

As she approached the corner to a street, she let go of her rifle, allowing it to drop onto its sling as she swiftly tied her hair back with a band, tucking it into the back of her shirt to keep it from flopping about. It was a little inconvenient, but Akari wasn't willing to sacrifice her hair just because it was a bit annoying. It had never interfered with her in a big way, so she saw no reason to cut it.

Dipping her head around the corner, Akari immediately drew her gun up to her shoulder, resting it and lining her sights up to the chest of the man stood in the centre of the street, who was busy aiming down an alleyway. Before she could fire, a tube-launched grenade came flying out of the alleyway he was aiming at, landing beneath his feet and immediately blasting him to pieces. As she lunged back around the corner to avoid the shockwave and shrapnel, she heard several sets of footsteps and cursed.

There were at least a half-dozen pairs of footsteps, and they were organized, probably Merc's or PMC, perhaps even spec-ops of some big country or some shit if her luck was that bad. She didn't dare look around the corner again, no doubt they'd already set up 360 security and were watching all possible angles, ready to blast her face off the instant she peeked the corner. If there were only one or two she'd be willing to risk it, but more than that meant they could watch all angles easily.

"Report." One of them said curtly, and Akari took the discussion they were having on their radio as an opportunity to slip away. She might be confident enough to shoot a PMC in the back of the head and steal some of his gear, but taking on anything larger than a fireteam was way more than Akari was going to consider. Unfortunately for the woman, she forgot that PMC infantry typically operated with sniper coverage, so the only warning she had of what was about to happen was the brief muzzle-flash from a building maybe 500 meters away before the bullet impacted her in the chest, going straight through her body-armour and into her upper-torso, ripping hr vital organs apart in an echoing thundercrack, alerting nearly the whole city that another unfortunate soul had just been killed.

As she died, just as many others had, she shut her eyes, ready for whatever was coming next, if anything.

* * *

**Ahh, a new Player, hello there!**

_'Wait, what?' _Akari thought as she glanced around, or tried to. There was text floating in front of her eyes, and blackness surrounding her. She tried to move her head and gaze around, but it appeared she didn't actually have a body at that particular moment, and the perfect darkness and the fact the words didn't seem to move tuned her into the idea that something not normal was currently going on.

**That's right! Oh, it's so helpful when the Player realizes that for themselves!**

_'Okay, the text can...read my mind?' _Akari thought, observing as the text deleted and replaced itself quickly.

**Again, correct! This will be far simpler than me explaining it all. Player, you have been selected from the current count of...pending...:108,470,690,115 deceased human souls of your world and drawn from your world's afterlife to take part in our newest iteration of...The Game!**

_'Bit of a thing for the cinematic, huh? Well, can I have a body and stuff? I'd feel a bit more comfortable actually talking and looking around...please.'_

**Oh, and so polite. Why certainly, If you would just give me a moment to...there we are.**

Akari felt a sensation quite like being turned inside-out, but it passed swiftly, leaving her twitching in mild discomfort as she felt her body kind of just...appear beneath her. It was strange going from being unable to hear, smell, touch or taste anything to then having all her senses back. Of course, she could see, since her mysterious benefactor was writing to her, and think, but outside of that she couldn't experience any of her other senses. "Well, thanks. I much prefer talking to thinking about shit." She said briskly.

**Not a problem, though if you could mind your profanity that would be appreciated. Now, as I mentioned, you have been selected to be a participant for the game. A brief explanation shall follow. But first, I must ask, would you like to skip this?**

Folding her arms, Akari hummed to herself. On one hand, before she entered the city, she'd played a good few computer games, and her first instinct upon a cutscene was to mash Every Single Button in an attempt to skip it. But on the other, this seemed a lot more important, considering that, from what she could infer, she would actually be living this game. "Uhh, it'd probably be best to actually get an explanation of what's going to happen, right?"

**A very apt observation. Very well. Ahem. You are the thirty-first participant in the newest alpha version of The Game (Improved Title pending). The Game is designed as a full-immersion interactive roleplay action-adventure experience. The world you shall be entered within is taken from random mythology available within one of the 709,011,636 Universes Nox-Corp operates within. The currently selected Universe for testing is...pending...: The Naruto Universe. Universe of Origin - Universe 636,203. Universe of Participant Origin - 403,656,234.**

"Woah woah woah, you're saying there's over seven-hundred-million different Universes out there?" Akari asked with a yell.

**That is correct Player. Nox-Corp operates within all known Universes, but there are presumably many we do not know about yet. Now, you shall be given a vast character selection array to choose from but we first must establish some important things. Firstly, you are given free will to do as you please. If you wish to attempt the gaining of immortality, you are more than welcome to try. Destroy the world you stand upon? Go right ahead. Make your own imitation of the Game if you so please! The world is truly your oyster, and The Game exists to do nothing but aid you in whatever endeavours you choose.**

**That being said, The Game shall also attempt to push you into a 'canon' of sorts, following a vague guideline of what the original Universe went through. This is not a rigid thing and can be changed, but certain events will still occur, even if the circumstances and outcomes change. For an example from your own Universe...pending...: The L1A1 Rifle you wielded before your death, but by killing one man, you caused it to be made by France rather than the United Kingdom. The weapon was still made, but a different country produces it. Are you following me so far Player?**

"Yeah, sure, I get it. So say...I kill someone who was meant to do something important that affected 'canon'. That big event would still happen, but something else would have procked the event, perhaps something that canon had never addressed before?" Akari rubbed her chin in thought, feeling a vague sense of satisfaction from the Entity at her inquisitiveness.

**Exactly so. Now, as your own Universe had no knowledge of this Universe, the character creation has been adjusted to provide some of the necessary information. Are you ready Player?**

"Ready as I'll ever be." Akari muttered, watching as a rather monumental wall of text appeared before her, each sentence having a little box beside it. "Oh boy...This is gonna be complicated."

_**Spawn Locations: **_**These will dictate your location and what kind of beginning you can expect.**

**Amegakure**** \- The Village Hidden by Rain. An industrialised Hidden Village embroiled in a brutal civil war.**

**Related Perks****(Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected)****:**

**Sides* - The Civil War touches each resident of Amegakure, willing or otherwise. You must visibly support either one side or the other, which will invite retaliation from the opposing side and their supporters. Choose well, for one side will inevitably win this war.**

**Eternal Downpour - Amegakure is known for the rain. Growing up, the rain always seemed so welcoming to you. Chakra Sense activated/amplified if already unlocked during rain. 50% experience gain when raining. -25% experience loss when not raining. -50% experience loss when within deserts.**

**Waters of Life - Water is a well-known part of the Rain Village, and as such, many Shinobi, including yourself, find themselves with an affinity for water. 100% experience gain to Suiton Release techniques. 15% damage reduction when using Suiton techniques. Double attrition rate within deserts.**

**Technocratic - Amegakure is a very advanced nation, using technology far superior to surrounding nations. Unique gadgets and items available from general stores and traders. 100% experience increase to engineer trait. Spawn with Tinkerer perk - Able to work with simple and advanced machinery.**

**The Akatsuki - Home of the S-ranked Missing-nin organization, you found yourself drawn to them, and were accepted into their ranks for your skills. Spawn within a hidden base of the Akatsuki. Relations with all Akatsuki membvers set to Allies. Relations with all Shinobi factions will be set to Hated after certain key story events are procked.**

**Iwagakure**** \- The Village Hidden by Rock. A harsh and unforgiving land of stone, inhabited by hardy Shinobi.**

**Related Perks (Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected):**

**Conscription* - Iwagakure was hit hard by the last war, and as such is still struggling to raise its numbers up. Forced into Shinobi Academy without exception, barring perk choice of Dust-storm/Street Rat.**

**Explosive Art - The Explosion Corps of Iwagakure is feared, for good reason, they create giant explosions! Explosion Release available. Spawn with Explosive-lover perk - Strong urges to explode things at random. Forced to acknowledge explosions as beautiful artworks.**

**Dust-storm - The Kekkai Tota of Iwagakure's leader, the Tsuchikage. Capable of disintegrating targets on a molecular level. Dust Release Available. Greatly sought after, beware Bloodline-thieves. Inclusion to Tsuchikage family.**

**Darkness of the Earth - The Shinobi of Iwagakure are most at home under the ground, and you are no exception. 100% experience increase to Earth Release techniques. 15% damage reduction when using Doton techniques. Partial blindness.**

**Street Rat - Living on the streets and avoiding Shinobi was a hard life, but you managed. Spawn with Pickpocket/Sleight of Hand skills. 100% experience increase to Pickpocket/Sleight of Hand skills. Natural proclivity to be blamed for missing items. Weak Chakra coils from disuse.**

**Tanigakure**** \- The Village Hidden by Valleys. A dense network of rivers and valleys act as natural defences for this Village.**

**Related Perks (Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected):**

**River-runners* - Shinobi of the Land of Rivers are forced to learn how to traverse the numerous rivers in the land without bridges or fords. Spawn with water-walking ability.**

**Raava's gift - Inhabiting the water-rich lands gave you a natural inclination towards using water offensively. 100% experience increase to Suiton techniques. 15% damage reduction when using Suiton techniques. 50% increased chakra cost to Katon techniques.**

**Underwater Operations - You were trained from a young age for warfare, but from an unexpected angle. Nobody thinks to look for an enemy beneath the surface of the water. Spawn with Water-breathing technique. Shark-like features may lead you to be ostracised.**

**The Iryo-nin's Oath - Your proficiency for medical techniques was noticed by a band of missing-nin, and you find yourself as their regular stop for medical treatments. Spawn with Mystical Palm Jutsu. Relations with Akatsuki set to 'Liked'. Will be forced to heal severely-wounded criminals on occasion.**

**The Wanderer - You never stayed in one place too long, never had a settled home. This gave you a great skill for foraging and long trips, but left you without a home to turn to. 100% increase to foraging proficiency. Will spawn in the wilderness with no shelter.**

**Sunagakure**** \- The Village Hidden by Sand. A massive desert hides this village from the world.**

**Related Perks (Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected):**

**Sand-stalker* - Living within a desert brought some necessary skills for survival. No attrition suffered within deserts. Oases are marked on map within certain radius. Extra attrition within Snow regions. Probability to get lost increased within Snow regions.**

**Go-go Gadget Magnetron! - The Kekkei Genkai of the Kazekage, and it's yours! Iron Release available. Inclusion to Kazekage family. Potential to be kidnapped for bloodline.**

**Puppets, not Dolls - The much-feared Suna Puppet-Brigade have included you as a member. 100% experience increase to Puppeteering. Frequent taunting ahead. Spawn with Carver perk - Able to work wood into puppets and other shapes.**

**The Winds of Suna - In the deserts, the air is ablaze. With your own release, the heat is yours to command. Blaze Release available. Natural resistance to Katon techniques. Weakness to Suiton techniques. Bloodline thieves abound.**

**Eye of the Storm - Sandstorms are feared within Sunagakure, for good reason. Yet, whenever you walked in the storm, it never harmed you. 100% Resistance to Sandstorm attrition. No visibility modifier within Sandstorms.**

**Kumogakure**** \- The Village Hidden by Clouds. A rather militaristic and aggressive village.**

**Related Perks (Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected):**

**Ride the Lightning - Kumogakure is known for its Lightning Release techniques, and you are following in the footsteps of many others. 100% experience increase to Lightning Release techniques. 15% damage reduction when using Raiton techniques. May cause electronics to malfunction randomly.**

**Cloudrunner - Your clan was known for its Hiden techniques, and now, so are you. Swift Release available. May become targeted by Bloodline thieves.**

**Lightstorm - The ability to harness light has always been a powerful tool, one that is now within your grasp. Light Release available. 50% chance to gain temporary blindness debuff when using Hikari techniques. Will blind allies and enemies temporarily when used.**

**The Second Coming - The Six Paths Sacred Treasures, and they've been passed down to now be wielded by you. Access to all Sage of Six Paths equipment. Theft and assassination attempts will become commonplace.**

**Mists of the Mountain - Spending so much time in the clouds granted you a unique insight into using the water of clouds. 100% experience increase to Suiton Release techniques. 15% damage reduction when using Raiton techniques. Double attrition rate within deserts. Able to draw Suiton techniques using nearby clouds.**

**Kirigakure \- The Village Hidden by Mist. Also known as the Village of the Bloody Mist. A ruthless civil war is ongoing.**

**Related Perks (Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected):**

**Damn Bloodlines!* - Kirigakure is in the beginning throes of a bloodline purge, and you're caught right in the middle of it. If no bloodline perk selected, conscripted into Shinobi Academy against rebels. If bloodline available, forced into rebel encampment against Loyalists. Can avoid this by taking Abandonment starter location.**

**Abandonment - The civil war was too much for your parents, so they left at the earliest opportunity, taking you with them and fleeing the Village. Random spawn location. Relationship with Kirigakure set to Hated. 100% experience increase to stealth techniques.**

**I vomit LAVA! - One of the most dangerous substances on the planet, and you can control it at will. Lava Release available. Will become Hated by Kirigakure upon detection of Bloodline.**

**The Swordsmen of the Mist - Blades have always fascinated you, and now, you hold your very own, even at the cost of other skills. 100% increase to Blademaster Perk. Spawn with Novice Swordfighter perk - 100% experience increase to Blade proficiency. 25% experience loss to all other perks.**

**Silent Hill - Hiding within the mist is a staple technique of Kirigakure Shinobi, and you learned from the best. Spawn with Hiding in Mist perk - Able to hide within Mist using Chakra. 100% experience increase to Silent Killing technique. Relationship with many factions set to Distrusted.**

**Just Chill Out, Man - The near-extinct Yuki clan is where you trace your heritage from. Ice Release available. Will become hated by Kirigakure upon detection of Bloodline.**

**Konohagakure**** \- The Village Hidden by Leaves. Forests of the First Hokage's creation protect this village.**

**Related Perks (Asterisks are forced perks, only one may be selected):**

**Teamwork!* - Konohagakure values teamwork above all else. Upon graduation, will be forced into 3-man team. 100% increase to combination attack damage. May gain depression debuff if teammates die.**

**Lookit 'er eyes! - The Uchiha clan are famed for their red eyes, able to copy Jutsu and perceive faster than others. Able to unlock Sharingan Dojutsu. Naturally inclined towards hatred. Bloodline theft potential.**

**Wow, there's nothing there - The empty-seeming eyes of the Hyuuga clan are anything but empty. They can see all around them for miles, with a single blindspot. Able to unlock Byakugan Dojutsu. Bloodline thieves may attempt to kidnap you.**

**Aww, it's a puppy! - The Inuzuka clan spend their lives around their Ninken, and now, so do you. Spawn with Inuzuka perk - Ninken partner from birth to death. WILL become depressed upon partner death.**

**Queen of the Swarm - Bugs are often overlooked by many, allowing them to be excellent spies and assassins. Spawn with Aburame perk - Access to Kikaichu techniques. Will have holes in the skin for bugs traversal underneath the skin. Not for the squeamish.**

**...Troublesome - The laziest of the Konoha clans. The Nara are hyper-intelligent but incredibly lazy. Spawn with Nara perk - 100% Intelligence stat increase. One Skill Point increases Intelligence by 2. Crippling laziness will directly hamper progression.**

"Thats...a fucking lot of choices just for spawn locations..." Akari muttered, using her finger to look up and down the list. "You got any good recommendations?"

**We felt it best that the Player be granted plenty of options. They are not all of the potential beginnings, but they are the more notable ones. However, if that is the case I can narrow them down for you. In my humble opinion, the choices I'd take would be, selecting one from each village that is:**

**Amegakure- Technocratic**

**Iwagakure - Explosive Art**

**Sunagakure - Go-go Gadget Magnetron!**

**Kumogakure - Cloudrunner**

**Kirigakure - The Swordsmen of the Mist**

**Konohagakure - Lookit 'er eyes!**

**These are my own personal selections. They may not suit you, but these are what I would select if given the choice.**

"Right. Well, Amegakure and Kirigakure are in the midst of their Civil Wars, which sounds a lot like home, but I don't want to get caught up in more endless battle when I have no idea what's going on, maybe after I settle in I can travel there for a fight. Iwagakure sounds a bit like a dictatorship considering they are conscripting people, so no thanks. Sunagakure is a giant desert, so that can fuck right off...fucking deserts. Kumogakure is in the mountains, nice and cold, but you called them militaristic and aggressive. Konohagakure love teamwork, which I hate. So, to be honest, I kinda hate all of these." Akari admitted with a shrug.

**Well, if it helps you choose, the Uchiha can evolve their eyes and make them more powerful by experiencing loss, so if your teammates die before you, as long as you don't become cripplingly depressed, you'll have powerful abilities at your disposal. And it means the rest of your team have died off. Just what I personally would choose of course.**

"...Right. Well, I don't like the idea of being naturally inclined towards 'hatred', but I reckon I could do a lot worse. I mean really, Abandonment just sounds like it sucks." Akari reached out and tapped on the 'Lookit 'is eyes!' perk. After a flash of light, the screen changed, and Akari was met with another wall of text. "Oh for fuck sake."

**Apologies. I understand you must be getting impatient, but these are...rather important things to cover. This is, however, the last stretch, then you'll be free to begin your adventure.**

**Perks \- These perks are unique to your character, regardless of location selection. You may select three perks from the list.**

**() Knife-fighter - ****You grew up around knives, and as such, you are proficient in their use. 100% experience increase to Knife-proficiency.**

**() It's dangerous to go alone, take this - A sword is a useful tool, and you know how to use it. 100% experience increase to Sword-proficiency.**

**() Get Pole-armed! - A long weapon with a pointy thing at the end, great for keeping enemies away. 100% experience increase to Polearm-proficiency.**

**() Ink? Why Ink? - Fuinjutsu is often overlooked, but the strongest experts are capable of great things. 100% experience increase to Fuinjutsu-proficiency.**

**() Speed-demon - The Shunshin is a well-known Jutsu, but you took it way further. 100% experience increase to Shunshin-proficiency.**

**() Ka-boom - Explosions are pretty, wouldn't you agree? 200% Radius increase to all explosive tags used. Friendly fire beware!**

**() Better Barter, better prices! - You've always had a keen eye for deals. 100% increase to Barter stat.**

**() Weren't you just... - Hiding within a crowd of faces comes naturally to you. 100% increase to Stealth-proficiency. Hiding in crowds is easier to you. Sometimes over-looked on accident. Can be detrimental.**

**() Disillusioned - Genjutsu has always been a hobby of yours. 100% increase to Genjutsu-proficiency. Your illusions are harder to break out of.**

**() Chakra-Monster - You've always had a lot of Chakra for some reason. 200% Chakra capacity. Chakra control is more difficult for you than others.**

**() No coils? No problem! - You were born with non-existent Chakra coils. To make up for it, you became stronger. Inability to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. 200% experience increase to Taijutsu proficiency.**

**() The Medic is always right! - Medical stuff is always useful, both for healing yourself and allies, as well as knowing exactly where important organs are. 100% experience increase to Iryo-nin proficiency. Targetted by enemy Shinobi more often. Spawn with Mystical Palm technique.**

**() Inner Peace - Nature always called to you, and one day, you answered her call. 100% experience increase to Senjutsu-proficiency. Unable to turn to stone during Senjutsu practice. Natural uncomfortableness within villages.**

**() Civilian-friend - Despite your Shinobi background, you've always spent time with the civilians of your village, much to the ire of your elitist clan. Relations with civilians set to Liked. Relations with clan elders set to Disliked. 100% experience gain to Charisma stat.**

**() The Summoner - Your parents have handed down their summoning contract for generations, and now, it's in your hands. Spawn with randomly-generated summoning contract. Will be unable to use any other summon techniques.**

With a sigh, Akari glanced over the perks a few times, eventually settling for Knife-fighter and The Medic is always right! She was always fond of knives in her past life, then on top of that, being able to heal herself, and to a lesser degree her team, would definitely be handy. "Alright, I've got two of my perks, but I don't know what to take as a third. Maybe summoning contract? But then if I find a better summon I can't have them...hey Entity, can you suggest something you think I'd like?"

**Perhaps...'Ink? Why Ink?', as it gives you a great ease of access to Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. This allows you to write seals, which in the hands of experts can do near-anything you can imagine. Explosives, storage and barriers are the basics, but you can get some impressive abilities with dedication.**

Nodding along as the Entity explained what Fuinjutsu was in greater detail, she made up her mind, selecting the option. It seemed far too useful to not take. Everything else was very...focused. No coils sounded awful, speed-demon only allowed her proficiency in a single ability, and barter sounded like it'd only be useful if she was born to a merchant family. "So, what now?"

**Hmm...I personally would have taken the Sword or polearm over the Knife for the added reach granted but to each their own. I suppose Kunai count as knives, but it still makes more sense to me to simply have a longer weapon. Well, that is all you need to do for your character. I shall be watching, and I hope you enjoy your time in...The Game!**

* * *

Darkness greeted Akari after the entity made its grandiose announcement.

It took her longer than it should have to realize she had her eyes closed. When she opened them, she saw in the periphery of her vision, a small flashing icon. When she focused her mind on it, it expanded in her view and startled her. Fortunately enough, as she'd spent the last ten minutes of so staring at floating boxes anyway, it wasn't too startling to start reading floating text, but still a bit of a surprise.

**Welcome to the Interface. This is where any necessary messages, like update logs, quest objectives and the like are saved. Would you like a tutorial?**

**Yes (x) No ()**

Akari sighed as she stared intently at the Yes box, and it blinked out a moment after the black x appeared.

**Righty-ho. For now, we'll begin with the basics. You are now similar to a character from a video-game. You have experience, stats, perks, levels, debuffs, skills, the works. You can see all of this by either saying or simply thinking 'Status'.**

Akari decided she'd prefer to simply think the word. Saying status randomly would surely be seen as a little beyond strange. _'Status.' _A box appeared on the left side of her vision, and she flicked her eyes onto it, quickly scanning the contents.

**Status:**

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 2**

**Age: 8**

**Experience: 253/2000 **

**To Next Level: 1747**

**Title: Academy Student - 50% Experience Gain within Classroom**

**Health Points: 1120 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 12/s - Vit x Str - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 1240 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 24/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength- 4 - How much you can carry, and how hard you can hit.**

**Vitality- 3 - How much damage you can take, resistances to poisons.**

**Charisma- 7 - How good you are at socializing and telling truth from lie.**

**Intelligence- 8 - How smart you are, affects experience point gain rate.**

**Agility- 7 - How agile you are, how well you can handle weaponry.**

**Wisdom- 3 - How well you can make a decision, contemplating ramifications.**

**Luck- 4 - How generally lucky you are. Affects basically everything.**

**Perks:**

**Lookit 'is eyes! - The Uchiha clan are famed for their red eyes, able to copy Jutsu and perceive faster than others. Spawn with Sharingan Dojutsu. Naturally inclined towards hatred.**

**Knife-fighter - ****You grew up around knives, and as such, you are proficient in their use. 100% experience increase to Knife-proficiency.**

**Ink? Why Ink? - Fuinjutsu is often overlooked, but the strongest experts are capable of great things. 100% experience increase to Fuinjutsu-proficiency.**

**The Medic is always right! - Medical stuff is always useful, both for healing yourself and allies, as well as knowing exactly where important organs are. 100% experience increase to Iryo-nin-proficiency. Targetted by enemy Shinobi more often. Spawn with Mystical Palm technique**

**Gamer's Mind - Your mind is now that of a game character. Emotions can be ignored if wished, but can also be embraced. This does not grant any invulnerability to mental techniques.**

**Gamer's Body - Your body is also that of a game character. You will die if your Health Points reach zero. Health is recovered by sleeping or reaching certain milestones. You will NOT recover from cripples by sleeping.**

**Techniques:**

**Fire Release: Great Fireball - A well-known Jutsu within the Uchiha Clan. Moulding Chakra within your lungs, you can expel flames as either a colossal ball of fire, or as a continuous stream of flame. Ball Usage - 150 CP/each. Stream Usage - 25CP/s.**

**Substitution Jutsu - An Academy standard, the art of swapping your position with an inanimate object up to the same size as yourself when in imminent danger. Usage - 75CP/each.**

**Transformation Jutsu - Take another form and hide in plain sight. This ability puts an illusion over the user, but is easily disrupted. Target must be within 2 feet of height to caster, and within 50lbs of weight. Usage - 75CP/cast, 2CP/s to maintain.**

**Clone Jutsu - An illusionary non-corporeal clone. Great for distractions, but not much else. Upgrades into Shadow Clones, which are corporeal. Usage - 15CP/each.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Beginner - The catch-all medical ability. Able to regenerate wounds of varying degrees. Usage - 25CP/s. Heal-rate - 25HP/s. Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Proficiencies:**

**Uchiha Interceptor Fist - A Taijutsu form used by the Uchiha which makes the best possible usage of the Sharingan Dojutsu's predictive abilities to counter enemy attacks and bring victory. - Level 5 - 15.6%**

**Shurikenjutsu - The art of throwing pointy things. Pretty self-explanatory. - Level 7 - 77.3%**

**Bukijutsu - The way-**

"Oh my fucking god this is gonna make my head explode!" Akari yelled, wincing when she heard someone in the house crash into something. "Oh shit." She muttered when she heard rather angry footsteps approaching her room. She closed her menu in a panic, closing the tutorial early when it wouldn't go away, then tried not to look suspicious as she heard the steps come closer.

"Uchiha Akari, where on earth did you learn that language?!" A woman, her mother if the vague recollection of memories was correct, yelled as she burst into the room.

"Uhh...at the Academy? They started trying to de-sensitize us to words like that...Sorry, Okaa-san." She mumbled, trying her best to look like a meek and apologetic child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She idly noted that she wasn't speaking English, but it seemed her mind was just sort of...going with the flow, perhaps it was just her old memories from whatever experiences this version of Akari had undertaken, leaving her able to speak what sounded a lot like Japanese, despite never being fluent in it before.

As she heard the woman walk over to her, Akari got ready for something, any chance to flee running through her head. She wasn't quite ready to be lifted up, but that was...better than what images her mind conjured up. "Oh it's okay sweetie, just...don't say those words, hmm? Kami forbid you freeze up on the battlefield because you heard someone yell that out." The woman, Kana her memories thoughtfully supplied, said as she patted her head.

"Mhm, okay Kaa-san." Akari rubbed her eyes. "What's for breakfast?" She asked innocently.

As the woman nattered on about food, Akari let a smile slip onto her lips, deciding to go through her proficiencies later. From what she could remember, the original Akari was very much like her, which she supposed was to aid in her assimilation to her new life. Silently, she thanked the Entity again, following her mother through the house and to the kitchen. As she settled down on a chair, the smell of...sausages? Yeah, the smell of sausages wafted over, and Akari couldn't resist but to take a peek around the corner, her jaw dropping as she saw what was cooking on the stove.

_'Is that a fucking full-english? What the fuck...?'_

* * *

**Me again!**

**Okay, I re-wrote a few bits and pieces, didn't change too much though, aside from explaining why Akari can understand the language despite not being a fluent Japanese speaker. it explains my ATROCIOUS use of suffixes throughout the story.**

**...I never remember them properly., it's not my fault! Also, just as a heads up, proficiencies disappear after maybe chapter 20 or so, I wasn't using them properly. Akari still references them, but they aren't visibly listed, since they weren't doing anything really aside from gauging progression, which honestly some people got annoyed about, because she does it in the background. I don't actually show her training, it's just meant to be assumed she's doing practice off-screen, but whatever.**

**Hope you enjoyed, and please, do review, I love reading your reactions!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 2**

**Age: 8**

**Experience: 253/2000**

**To Next Level: 1747**

**Title: Academy Student - 50% Experience Gain within Classroom**

**Health Points: 1120 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 12/s - Vit x Str - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 1240 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 24/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength- 4 - How much you can carry, and how hard you can hit.**

**Vitality- 3 - How much damage you can take, resistances to poisons.**

**Charisma- 7 - How good you are at socializing and telling truth from lie. - Will change to Endurance soon!**

**Intelligence- 8 - How smart you are, affects experience point gain rate.**

**Agility- 7 - How agile you are, how well you can handle weaponry.**

**Wisdom- 3 - How well you can make a decision, contemplating ramifications.**

**Luck- 4 - How generally lucky you are. Affects basically everything.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Just a quick thing. If you like this story, go check out Ninja Gamer - By DragonKnightRyu. Their story is why I began writing my own version, and many elements of this story take direct inspiration from theirs. In my opinion, their story is FAR superior to mine, and I implore you to go and enjoy their writing.**

**_Chapter 2_**

* * *

_'Status.' _Akari thought, watching the screen pop up in front of her.

After the strangely British breakfast, she made an excuse about homework and went back to her room. When the door shut, she did actually do some homework, which was mostly just a hypothetical theory on how the Kawarimi Jutsu worked. For those curious, Akari theorized that it took the Chakra of the caster and target then swapped their positions, which took the body with them, using Chakra to cushion against the destruction such sudden, high-speed transportation would cause.

Scrolling down, Akari glanced across all her stats, reaching proficiencies and mumbling to herself quietly. "So, Bukijutsu, Fuinjutsu and all that get here because of my perks, and anything I ought to have from my memories. So, I suppose if I perform certain actions like using a polearm, I'll start gaining proficiency. Oh, but then how is it calculated? If I picked up a polearm right now with no proficiency would I stab myself in the foot with it?"

A blinking icon on the side of her vision drew her attention, and she focused on it, watching the box expand and stifling a giggle at the note there.

**50 experience, +1 to Wisdom for accurate and reasonable deductions.**

"Cool, so certain actions also unlock...oh for fuck sake." Akari noticed that her Chakra had gone up in response to the increased Wisdom, which she realized meant trying to keep an actual track of her numbers was going to be a bitch. With a shrug, she finished reading and closed the stats screen down, thinking on the memories her past self had given her when she took over control.

She was called Akari Uchiha, she was enrolled in the Academy and maintained a carefully-maintained rank 3 position the entire time. Apparently she'd heard that holding a position like that was well-regarded, so instead of just barreling up to the top spot, holding the bronze position for the entire time in the Academy would get her noticed by the recruiters who would be interested in that kind of talent. After all, carefully modifying her results to ensure she retained that exacting position took a lot of skill and deception. Besides, the top two got stuck with the dead-last, which was fucking stupid and weakened that team significantly, so she was able to avoid that by simply sticking to third best.

Not that her estranged father was very happy with that decision. In his opinion, his daughter should be boldly proclaiming her strength, since while the number one spot was taken by another Uchiha, the second place was not an Uchiha, nor was it Akari, and that irked him, as he knew Akari could take that spot if she actually tried. Fortunately enough, Kana had told Akari to embrace her decision, and ever since her father stopped living in the house, it was all too easy.

That wasn't to say that she didn't show off. In Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu and all those ninja-oriented ways, she was the best. But when it came to written tests, she always balanced her high physical scores with lower theoretical scores, making sure her work was enough to keep her third-place position without lowering or rising at all. It was...shockingly easy to get a hold of the actual score counts for her tests and make sure she kept her place.

With a shrug, Akari grabbed her ninja holster sitting on a nearby table, and went to strap it on, only for an icon flashing to draw her attention. Opening it, Akari was met with several dozen grey boxes arranged in rows of five. "Oh, an inventory huh? Cool." Seeing a big grey block marked input, she slowly pushed her ninja holster into it, watching as it disappeared and an icon appeared in the upper leftmost box. Pointing at it, she dragged it to a nearby box that began flashing and felt the holster simply appear on the small of her back.

Looking at all the other boxes, she saw all her equipped items, and grinned. She twirled the little model of herself in the inventory, admiring her clothing and armour from all angles. Pulling her vest from her equipped slot and putting it in the inventory saw the clothing simply vanish from her body with a little blue flash. Quickly re-equipping it, Akari smirked. That'd make getting dressed an absolute snap.

With a stretch, Akari left her room, waving a quick goodbye to her mother who was busy sharpening one of her Kunai, then stepping out of the house and taking a quick look around. The compound was a rather nice place, with Japanese-style buildings along the streets but mixed with modern-looking stuff, not unlike what she'd have found back home. It was a rather odd blend, but then again, with over seven hundred million universes to choose from, at least a few would have similarities to her old world.

As she strolled down the street, she passed several people, some of whom had metal plates on their foreheads. Her memories chimed in that those were Hitai-ate, they designated who was a Shinobi, as well as telling people what Village they came from. When she realized she'd have to wear one as well, Akari was a little annoyed, but quickly realized that they weren't forced to wear them on their heads, as one person had it wrapped around their arm, while another had it on their throat.

Reaching a training ground, Akari drew out a handful of Kunai, almost dropping them in surprise when she felt just how...natural it felt to pull those weapons from her holster. She'd drawn pistols from holsters before, so it was a similar action, but Akari was expecting at least a little fumbling. She chalked it up to her Shurikenjutsu level and eyed a tree a little ways from her.

Throwing a single Kunai, she watched the weapon sail through the air and impact the tree a little off-centre. Once again, her memories told her that the 'real' Akari would have hit the tree dead-centre, meaning that there was at least some input required in terms of skill. As she threw the rest of the Kunai in her grasp, she grinned. It felt...quite amazing to see those little metal blades embedding in a tree repeatedly, not a single one missing the target, though a few were rather off the mark.

Fortunately enough, the day was a Saturday, so she had that day as well as tomorrow to get her aim back up to scratch before Monday, where the weekly test would take place. It wouldn't do for her score to randomly dip for no discernable reason after all. Wandering over to the tree, she yanked her Kunai back out, accidentally nicking her finger on the blade when she tugged too hard, and spotting a small marker appear in her vision.

**-5HP.**

With a mumbled curse, she was about to do what she normally would, sticking it into her mouth and making sure nothing was in the cut. Then she remembered that she took the medic choice and frowned. Murmuring "Status.", she looked at the technique, crossing her arms. "Okay, so it heals, but how do I acti-" Before she could even finish the sentence, almost as though on-demand, her memories told her to put her hands into a certain orientation, a hand seal, then condense her Chakra. Doing so, she felt...strangely warm, like she was cosying up to a toasty fire on a winter evening. She felt the very light drain on her Chakra, and watched the wound quickly seal itself up, leaving no evidence that she'd even cut her finger open aside from the small drops of blood.

"That's fucking awesome." She breathed, looking over her finger and quickly flicking the blood into the undergrowth, smudging it all down to hide the evidence and wiping her finger on a few leaves. Being able to heal like that was pretty damn impressive, and it was weird how her body was seemingly generated with a backstory to match her selections. As a child 'Akari' spent a lot of time with knives and Kunai, matching her Knife-fighter perk. She expressed heavy interest in Fuinjutsu, matching the second perk, and she wanted to be a Iryo-nin, matching the Medic selection to a tee.

It was pretty weird, and getting memories of things she hadn't actually done was just a little disorienting, but it was useful, so she didn't mind. Skipping away from the tree, Akari yanked out her Ninja-wire, looping several strings into the holes at each Kunai's end. Wrapping those wires around her fingers, she channelled her Chakra into the wire and threw the Kunai at an angle, curving them back in using her wire and making them thud against the tree on either side.

With a tug, Akari brought the Kunai back to her hands, unbinding the wire and wincing at the bleeding lines it left on her fingers. With a quick heal, she was good to go again, but put the wire away. It seemed useful enough, and fairly strong, but not quite something she felt she wanted to be proficient in. Very quickly she lost herself to the rhythmic thudding of Kunai, Senbon and Shuriken hitting the tree, turning the wood into a hole-riddled pin-cushion. After about 15 minutes, a flashing box caught her attention, and she opened it to see:

**Shurikenjutsu has levelled up - Level 8!**

"Cool." Was all she said as she read the announcement.

* * *

"Akari, where are you?"

The voice of her mother called through the house, and Akari quickly finished the line she was painting on her scroll, placing the brush gently in a jar then leaving her room and walking to the staircase, leaning down the bannister and locking eyes with her mother, stood next to somebody vaguely familiar, but Akari couldn't quite remember who...oh.

"Aniki!" She yelled, leaping over the wooden bannister and smashing into her brother with a leap-hug and a grin. A grin her brother returned. Sei Uchiha, her older brother. According to memory, he was a Chunin and out fighting a war. Unfortunately, 'Akari' wasn't as interested in the war as the actual Akari was, so she wasn't quite sure exactly what was going on, who was to blame, or anything like that. All she knew was he was her brother, and he was nice. Really nice. Like seriously, best brother ever material right here in her arms, something she re-affirmed by tightening her grip slightly.

"Hey there Imouto." He replied, ruffling her hair. "Well, with a welcome like this, I should leave more often." Akari pouted as she released him and poked him in the chest.

"No! You promised you'd show me something cool when you got back!" She said folding her arms, internally thanking 'Akari' for being so adorable. It was the only way she got such a promise from her brother after all. Well, that and the fact they were the only siblings in the family. "You promised me." She re-iterated slowly, her eyes tipping up to look at him as her body twisted around this way and that, the perfect picture of innocent begging.

Akari got a hair ruffle for her troubles. "Yeah yeah, don't worry, I'll help you out with it as well." He dropped a scroll in her hands, and Akari looked from it to her brother with a confused look. "Well, you should get studying, it's not exactly an easy thing to learn. I'll be up later." He then patted her on the head and walked past her to the kitchen, leaving Akari to grin after him for a moment, leaping at his back for a hug and a sharply yelled 'THANK YOU!' before charging upstairs, leaping onto her bed and gazing at the scroll.

**Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Shuriken Jutsu scroll**

**Read?**

Akari jabbed the button, watching the scroll disappear in a flash as the Jutsu was assimilated. Immediately her mind was assaulted with the images of forming certain hand-seals and coating Shuriken, Kunai and even Senbon in Fire Chakra. It gave her a mild headache, but she was much too giddy about the idea of throwing a Shuriken coated in a fireball to care. Pulling out a Shuriken, she spun it between her fingers, tempted to give the Jutsu a trial.

Of course, she knew it was a stupid idea doing something like that within a predominantly wooden building, and besides, it was probably not something meant to be learned in a single day. Sullenly tucking the Shuriken away again, Akari wandered over to her desk. On it was scattered scrolls and ink supplies, some of which were half-empty, with many of the scrolls having seals written atop them.

As she glanced over them, she found herself cataloguing them quietly. "So those three are storage, that's an explosive tag, ooh a Chakra-draining seal..." She stacked all the papers up, tidying the desk up a little as she organized the ink bottles from emptiest to fullest. It seemed that while many things came across, her neatness didn't seem to shine too well, as the room was quite messy, and the desk was no exception.

An hour or so into her organization, her brother peeked his head into her room, making Akari jump when he tapped on her shoulder, having been too distracted organizing to notice him. "Hey, Akari, you want to go try that Jutsu out now?" He said with a soft smile on his lips, and Akari nodded eagerly, putting the brushes in her hand into a pot and trailing after him, her holster already on her back. "So where's the scroll?" he asked randomly as they left their home,

"Oh, I left it behind, I remember what it said anyways. If I don't, It's only in my room, won't be hard to get." Akari quickly said, silently vowing to copy scrolls before she read them, so that way she could actually give them back. That way nobody could question just where the scrolls kept disappearing to.

A box started flashing again, and Akari flicked her eyes to it, seeing another Wisdom gain and rolling her eyes. However, below that notification, she saw another one and opened it.

**Quest received!**

**Train with your brother.**

**Objective: Land at least three Shuriken on target whilst coated in Fire Chakra.**

**Reward: 250 experience.**

**Bonus Objectives:**

**Hit one bullseye.**

**Hit two bullseyes.**

**Hit three bullseyes.**

**Reward: 50 experience per objective.**

That seemed easy enough. Akari quickly grabbed eight Shuriken out, flinging them all one by one at the target, surreptitiously grabbing two more in one hand when it was empty.

Tossing the final Shuriken, she saw that while one of the ten Shuriken had missed the target somehow, the rest were dead on target, four hitting the bullseye while the rest were close. A box on her vision started flashing, but Akari ignored it in favour of retrieving her Shuriken, wiping a few off to remove the burnt wood that was marring them before she put them back in her pouch and turned a beaming smile on her brother.

"Very good Imouto,-" He said, patting her head. "-you just need to watch out for crossing your weapon paths. One of the Shuriken missed because it hit another and almost knocked them both off target." He pointed out the single stray Shuriken in the undergrowth, revealing that it was still quite close to the target, having scored a line on the edge of the wood. Hopping over to it and picking it up, Akari again fumbled with the weapon and nicked herself.

"Dammit." She cursed softly, already forming the sign to fix the cut.

"When did you learn that technique then, Imouto?" He asked, tucking his hands into his vest pockets, a happy tilt to his eyes and a smile on his lips as he watched the cut seal up.

Akari just shrugged. "I dunno, a little while ago. You know I wanted to be a medic Aniki. Not like there's anything that stopped me from picking it up, the Clan Library isn't exactly restricted. I mean sure, I'm not meant to be allowed what counts as an A-rank technique, but I have these oh so cute puppy-dog eyes, what poor sweet Chunin could resist?" Akari batted her eyes at her brother. "Can we get some Dango?" She asked hopefully.

Unfortunately, as Akari had already used the puppy-dog eyes on her brother that day, he had hit his limit for wheedling little sisters on that day. He still chuckled and nodded, but not because she was being cute. "Sure, I wanted to go out for a snack anyway, and I think you deserve it for learning that so fast. Maa, you're growing up too fast. Where's the little Chibi who used to try and steal my Kunai?"

"Meh, she's still here, you just don't notice anymore." She twirled a Kunai and snickered when his hands darted to his pouch. "Can't catch me!" She yelled, darting off with her brother firmly on her heels, laughing all the way.

* * *

The pair were still laughing when they made it back to their home after their delicious outing.

"Ara, what's so amusing you two?" The voice of their mother called from the Kitchen, and Akari leaned around the corner to grin at her mother.

"Secret." She put her finger to her lips and made a shushing sound, only to be clipped gently on the head by Sei and pouted at him. "Aww, Aniki~!" She half-whined.

Ruffling her hair again, Sei smiled at their mother. "Nothing major happened, Okaa-san. Akari just wants to play up what did occur, namely the fact she's found a new adoring fan." He said with a smirk, leading Akari to playfully hit him with her fists.

"Not true! Not entirely anyway..." Akari and Sei had gone out for Dango, only for the younger girl to be hugged suddenly from behind by a red-haired Chunin. "She showed up during our snacking and declared that I was adorable. I'm not adorable, I'm gonna be a Kunoichi! They're cool and strong, not adorable." Her brother plopped his hand on top of her head, knocking her scarf askew as he tousled her hair.

"There there Imouto, I'll always think you're cute." He got a swatted hand to the face for his efforts, chuckling, before his face turned serious. "Okaa-san, where is Father? Is he due to return soon?" Her brother said with a grimace, his face relaxing when their mother shook her head with a sigh.

"I don't know. I heard a rumour that your father was sent to the front lines a month ago, and I don't know when they'll send him back. Hopefully not for a year." She admitted, and Akari picked that moment to disappear up the stairs, entering her bedroom and closing the door with a frown. She hadn't actually met her father a single time in the time she'd been in the new world, but her memories most certainly didn't do him any favours, painting him as a rather controlling man who frowned upon Akari's attempts to be a Kunoichi. It seemed like he'd much rather she stay at home and marry somebody vaguely important to continue his line.

Of course, Akari was far too headstrong to allow this, and since both her mother and brother stood on her side, the man begrudgingly allowed it. But in return, Akari found herself in the unenviable position of being the barely-tolerated child. Of course, she got all the affection she needed from her mother and brother, but it was still aggravating to even think about those memories.

The worst one was of him coming home after a deployment in a rage. Apparently someone had let slip a rumour that Kana was getting close to some hotshot Chunin, even inviting the guy home one night. Of course, what they failed to mention was that they'd been friends for years, and the poor guy had come back from his own deployment after losing his entire team to an ambush by Iwagakure shinobi.

When he came home, he burst through the door and practically demanded that the man leave his home. When Kana defended him and Akari tried to stop her father from doing something stupid, he whirled around and struck her across the face. That was the only time the man had struck Akari. But, while she might have been retired, Kana was not about to let that man strike her baby like that, immediately taking him by the neck and throwing him from the house. Never let it be said that Kana Uchiha was a weak retired Kunoichi. Any Chunin would have their ass handed to them by Kana, considering she used to be a Jounin after all.

Of course, he ranted and raved, swearing things that shouldn't have been heard, let alone by a then 7-year-old girl, before the Uchiha MP escorted him from the compound entirely. Since then, their family had fallen into a rather odd position. Since they were still married, her father was still an Uchiha, and thus entitled to remain within the Clan Barracks. However, because he had struck his own daughter, and everybody heard the threats he made, he had lost custody of both Akari and Sei.

The siblings went out of their way to avoid that area of the compound, but it was still hard to see the bastard walking freely down the streets or in the market after what he promised, the ever-present frown on his lips each time they saw him. They were just grateful that unless they directly gave him permission, he couldn't even speak to them. Lord knows what he would have said if that little clause wasn't added.

Shaking her head from her depressing thoughts, Akari thought _'status'_ once again and began scrolling through her menus. She saw an options menu and clicked it, noticing that it was highly customizable. Quickly, she set her Health and Chakra numbers to appear permanently at the corner of her vision, setting mission objectives in another corner, and going through several other options, customizing what she construed as her HUD to her liking.

She then remembered her quest, focusing on the box and going slightly cross-eyed when it expanded in front of her.

**Quest completed!**

**Train with your brother.**

**Objective: Land at least three Shuriken on target whilst coated in Fire Chakra - Completed.**

**Reward earned - 250 experience.**

**Bonus objectives:**

**Hit one bullseye - Completed.**

**Hit two bullseyes - Completed.**

**Hit three bullseyes - Completed.**

**Reward earned - 50 experience each, 150 total experience.**

Akari glanced at her status screen to read the newly-updated stats, but a gentle knock on her door drew her attention, and she dismissed her status screen before clearing her throat. "Come in." The door opened and her brother peeked in, entering when he saw she was just lazing about. "Hey Aniki, what's up?"

"I was wondering where that scroll went, I wanted to check something on it." He said casually, frowning when Akari made a face. "Akari...what's wrong?"

"I...uh..." She tapped her index fingers together. "Kinda lost it? It was an accident I swear." Her brother just looked at her with an exasperated face.

"Seriously Akari? I hope you remembered what's on that scroll, I can't get you another one." He rubbed his eyes. "Well, if you find it, can you give it back to me as soon as possible?" Akari quickly nodded, feeling bad about not considering her actions. Then again, she didn't expect the damn thing to just fizzle and disappear on her.

"I promise!" She said, immediately beginning plans to try and copy down as much of the scroll as she could remember. She felt really bad for just using that scroll now, since Sei probably had to pull at least a few strings to get ahold of it. The least she could have done was to try and make an identical version of it, that way she could just use it, then give the copied version back to him, with nobody being the wiser.

Of course, then she remembered that the Sharingan would see the difference, cursing quietly when her brother left the room.

* * *

**Some more edits, not really changing too much, just making a few things flow better, correcting stupid errors, that sorta thing!**

**I'm probably going to do one fix a day, that way I don't overwhelm myself doing corrections. Well, hope you enjoyed!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 2**

**Age: 8**

**Experience: 703/2000**

**To Next Level: 1297**

**Title: Academy Student - 50% Experience Gain within Classroom**

**Health Points: 1120 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 12/s - Vit x Str**

**Chakra Points: 1320 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 32/s - Int x Wis**

**Strength - 4 **

**Vitality - 3**

**Charisma - 7 **

**Intelligence - 8 **

**Agility - 8 **

**Wisdom - 4 **

**Luck - 4 **

**New Technique:**

**Phoenix Flower Shuriken Jutsu**** \- This technique coats Shuriken, Kunai or Senbon in Fire Chakra, slightly hiding their exact location within the flames and causing extra damage. Usage - 15CP/weapon**


	3. Chapter 3

**Jeez, you guys really love this story. An hour after posting, it had 7 views, 5 follows, 3 favourites and 2 reviews. Like...damn. I won't be using the Instant Dungeon system, I really, REALLY think it's cheap. There will be random encounters and quests that pull Akari in different directions towards important things, but for the most part it's whatever Akari gets up to on her own.**

_**Chapter 3**_

* * *

"Akari."

Akari snapped her head up from its place on her desk to squint at the teacher. "Hmm? Sorry, did I miss something, I was kinda day-dreaming, apologies sensei." The teacher just sighed.

"Akari, please pay attention." That was all they said, and Akari almost immediately put her head back on her desk. It wasn't that she was bored. Well okay, it was that, but it wasn't the teacher's fault. She knew a lot of what they were teaching already, namely mathematics, trajectories, things that she'd already studied in her old world. She did listen, during lessons that mattered, but not during lessons that Akari already knew, which grated with her teachers, not that she really cared.

She was practically a shoe-in for becoming a Genin that year, since she finally decided she was ready for some actual missions. The classes were nice, and learning about Jutsu theory was interesting enough, but it wasn't the same as actually getting out there and doing something. But, with her first missions being guaranteed as boring D-ranks, she wasn't holding out much hope for early excitement.

"Akari!" The teacher yelled, and Akari raised her head.

"I was actually vaguely paying attention that time sensei." The man raised an eyebrow. "How to calculate the trajectory of a Kunai. Take the estimated velocity and weight, angle of launch and initial height, and you can easily calculate said trajectory." Akari winced when the man's jaw dropped. She didn't mean to say that, that wasn't something they'd actually been taught yet, he was getting to that part. "Uhh, I never said that."

"...Indeed." The man gave her a thoughtful look before turning back to his board, writing something presumably bad down.

For Akari at least.

* * *

"Congratulations Akari!"

Akari murmured something unsavoury under her breath involving a rusty spoon and the teacher that ratted her out. More specifically his eyeballs. Ever since she accidentally mentioned her trajectory theory, nobody believed her when she tried to get low scores on tests, and she was practically shoved a promotion to Genin within a fucking week of rather in-depth testing. She didn't miss the fact that the amount of Shinobi in the village had dwindled, so it was obvious they needed every able body to fight in the war. But promoting a ten-year-old to Genin because she revealed that she knew a little more than she let on? That seemed a bit much.

And it wasn't like there weren't other kids doing the exact same thing. There were at least two Nara in her year group that were massively holding back their abilities on tests. She'd seen their Shogi matches before the two brats were smart as hell, they just didn't let people see it. Yet while Akari got shoved into Genin, nobody ever looked twice at those two.

Tapping the Hitai-ate now strapped firmly to her forearm, Akari gave a smile to her mother. "Hey, it had to happen eventually. Maybe they finally noticed I've been in third place since the day I entered the Academy?" Akari did want to be a Genin that year, but a lot later. Instead, barely two months into the year and she was a Genin. "Anyway, I've gotta go in again tomorrow and find out which team they're siccing me on, since there aren't any other fresh Genin to pair me with."

It was a shame that Sei wasn't in the village, he'd promised that he was going to be taking her out for her first drink when she got her headband, something he desperately wanted the honour of doing. Not that Akari would let anybody else take her for a drink, she was fucking ten, but it was probably the principle of the matter. "I'll be sure to send him a letter." Her mother informed her.

"Thanks Okaa-san. At least now Father won't be able to even make rumors of me not becoming a Kunoichi." She said with a smirk, hugging her mother quickly before skipping up to her room, closing the door, then promptly collapsing onto the bed with a sigh. Two years had passed in the blink of an eye, and tomorrow she was going to be meeting her teammates, probably a team who lost a person and needs a new one to balance them out.

Akari could already feel the staring. She didn't want a team, and they probably didn't want a replacement. Well, too bad, the village decreed it, and so it had to be done, even if she really would prefer to just lone-wolf her way around. Closing her eyes for a moment, Akari let herself sink deeper into her pillows, and opened her status screen.

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 7**

**Age: 10**

**Experience: 3583/7000**

**To Next Level: 3417**

**Title: Genin - 50% Experience gain from Jonin-Sensei tutoring.**

**Health Points: 1420 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 42/s - Vit x Str - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 1500 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 50/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength- 6 - How much you can carry, and how hard you can hit.**

**Vitality- 7 - How much damage you can take, resistances to poisons.**

**Charisma- 12 - How good you are at socializing and telling truth from lie.**

**Intelligence- 10 - How smart you are, affects experience point gain rate.**

**Agility- 11 - How agile you are, how well you can handle weaponry.**

**Wisdom- 5 - How well you can make a decision, contemplating ramifications.**

**Luck- 8 - How generally lucky you are. Affects basically everything.**

**One Skill Point Available**

She'd found out when she hit level 3 that she received five skill points which she could allocate freely. So far she'd decided on levelling her Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck, keeping the others up as well just to ensure she didn't fall behind on other stats. As she scrolled down, she frowned. After her Aniki had given her that scroll, she hadn't learned a single new Jutsu in her two-year tenure, instead spending all her time levelling her proficiencies.

**Proficiencies**

**Uchiha Interceptor Fist - A Taijutsu form used by the Uchiha which makes the best possible usage of the Sharingan Dojutsu's predictive abilities to counter enemy attacks and bring victory. - Level 8 - 22.5%**

**Shurikenjutsu - The art of throwing pointy things. Pretty self-explanatory. - Level 11 - 3.7%**

**Bukijutsu - The way of the weapon. Covers all weaponry. - Level 17 - 33.2%**

**Knife-fighter - Using short-blades, daggers and Kunai in close-quarters combat. - Level 13 - 75.0%**

**Fuinjutsu - Sealing arts. The practice of using ink to achieve your goals. - Level 7 - 9.33%**

**Mystical Palm - Ability to detect and heal wounds using linked Jutsu. - Level 13 - 55.6%**

**Polearm-user - The act of swinging a long thing with a pointy bit at the end. - Level 1 - 13.7%**

**Tree-running - Leaf Shinobi are trained to flit through trees. - Level 3 - 37.5%**

**One-handed Seal usage - Using only one hand to make seals? You showoff. - Level 2 - 11.1%**

The Mystical Palm showing up as a proficiency confused Akari slightly, but she realized that while the Jutsu itself doesn't change, she gets better at figuring out how to actually close other people's wounds. Her own is fixed simply by regenerating her health, but for other people, she had to actually know how to handle their injuries. As for the Polearm ability, she picked up a polearm and swung it around for a half-hour. More than once Akari dropped the weapon even when trying her hardest to keep a firm grip, and eventually chalked it up to low proficiency.

Since she wanted to use knives and short blades, she left it alone after that.

* * *

"Uchiha, finally joined us I see."

A rather heavy-set and gruff man practically growled his words at Akari as she approached the Academy. Beside him, a girl with a black face-mask similar to her own old one was waving slowly at her, and sat beside her with his eyes closed was a boy. From the pineapple-styled hair he was presumably a Nara. "Yo." She replied blandly. As the man dragged the Nara onto his feet, she saw the girl giving her occasional glances only to look away again and sometimes whistle nonchalantly. "What?"

"Oh nothing~!" The girl chirped, bounding over to Akari and attempting to rest an arm around her shoulders. Akari just ducked under the arm, slipping behind the girl and elbow-checking her, making her stumble forward. "Yeesh, don't need to be so rude." She said when she recovered her footing, rubbing her ribs where Akari had nudged her.

Akari just folded her arms over. "Then don't try to touch my throat." Akari flicked her arm, slipping a Kunai out from the seal written within her arm-warmer and grasping it. "If you were an enemy and you had these, you could have me bleeding out within a fraction of a second. Right now, I don't know you, so please don't think you can just...just wrap an arm around me and call me your friend, that isn't how this works."

"A good instinct, but unnecessary, Uchiha. You are among allies here." The man who was presumably their Jonin-sensei bellowed out. "I'm Iseya Yuji, this energetic excuse of a Nara is Shichu, and the girl you just avoided is Emmot Nui. You are Uchiha Akari." The man briskly revealed everybody's names. "Now, let us cover skillsets. Shichu has his clan techniques, Nui is a Taijutsu fighter, and from recollection, you are a Bukijutsu user and an Iryo-nin. I myself am a Ninjutsu specialist. With all that covered, we should get moving. Tomorrow morning we are going to be leaving the village on a C-rank mission, hope you're ready for it Uchiha."

To say Akari was surprised was an understatement. To leave the village on a C-rank without a single D-rank under her name? The idea was actually a little daunting. "So, just like that?"

"Just like that. Maybe when not in a war you'd get coddled with D-rank missions, but we can't afford to leave talent, no matter how weak and young, sitting around painting fences while our Shinobi are dying out there." Akari grit her teeth when he called her weak. She was young, sure, but she was a higher level than the average Genin, who sat at level 5 usually. At a glance Akari saw the name-bar and level pop up beside her teacher and teammates.

**Iseya Yuji - Level 55**

**Nara Shichu - Level 7**

**Emmot Nui - Level 8**

Akari reasoned that at least they weren't weaker than her. Shichu was probably the same level as her simply because he was too lazy to train, and Nui likely worked quite hard on her Taijutsu. Yuji was a goddamn powerhouse, but considering he was a Jonin-sensei, one of the most elite Ninja barring ANBU and the Hokage, entrusted with the growth of new Genin, that made sense. "Cool. Well, do we meet back here tomorrow to leave, or at the gate, or what?" Akari said, sticking her hands into her skirt pockets.

"Meet at the South Gate at 0700 hours, bring everything necessary for a three-day excursion." He rumbled out, and Akari nodded.

"Sounds good. So, what do we do today? And no, Nara, I didn't ask you." Akari gave a pointed look to the slouching boy, making Nui giggle.

"Looks like she's got you locked down already, eh Shi?" The girl elbowed the Nara a few times, making him sigh and mutter something that sounded a lot like 'troublesome', something she found a lot of Nara murmured when they were irritated. Or bored. Or tired, which seemed to be the running theme for all Nara. At least, of the ones she'd met. "And to answer the question Akari, I'm gonna go practice some Taijutsu, lazy-bones here is gonna probably nap, and Yuji-sensei is going to likely observe for today then figure out what to do with you during the mission."

Akari nodded along, frowning a little by the end. "So...what happened to your third teammate?"

The rather bouncy girl seemed to tone down a little when Akari asked that. "He...left. Just up and vanished during a mission, left us to the wolves. It's funny, he always spouted drivel about how a Shinobi should be honest to the village, stay loyal to his friends, and above all else never abandon the mission. Then he goes and ignores all fucking three of those rules. Fucking hypocrite." Akari stretched her arms out as the girl ranted, waiting for her to finish.

"So, you don't give a shit about swearing huh? That's handy. If I got stuck on a team of prudes I was gonna rip my own hair out." The Nara raised an eyebrow, and their sensei just looked exasperated, but Nui immediately went to try and hug Akari again, getting sidestepped for her troubles a second time. "Can you seriously stop trying that?"

"Aww, but Akari, you've heard the word of the almighty! Hooray, I have someone to fucking talk to now. These two only speak when necessary, and they pretty much never swear. Our abandoning bastard of a teammate always got snippy when I swore. Oh, this is gonna be fucking great!" The girl yelled, drawing just a little attention and folding back into herself when she saw how many people heard her outburst. "Sorry!"

Akari just rubbed her eyes. This was gonna be...interesting.

* * *

_"Uchiha, anything new?"_

Akari pressed a hand to her left shoulder, toggling the radio held there and speaking softly into the microphone. "I've told you this, my eyes aren't any better than yours without the Sharingan, and I haven't fuckin' unlocked it yet." It was rather annoying how Yuji-sensei seemed to think her eyes were naturally better. They weren't. Until the Sharingan was unlocked her eyesight was pretty much as normal as anyone elses. "And no, nothing new. Same guard, looking out from the same post, for the last twenty minutes."

_"Hn. Okay, go to plan C."_ Was all he said as he clicked off his radio, and Akari followed suit, flitting silently from tree to tree. She was grateful the Academy had covered tree-running or she would have had a rather harsh time trying to keep up with her team as they approached. The mission was fairly simple, a camp of bandits had sprung up and began harassing villages, they were sent to destroy the camp. Opening her quest log, Akari glanced over it again.

**Quest!**

**Destroy bandit camp harassing Fire Country citizens.**

**Objective: Destroy camp and slay at least 75% of inhabitants.**

**Reward: 1250 experience.**

**Bonus Objectives:**

**Kill 15 bandits by yourself. Kill bandit leader. Get over 50% accuracy with Shurikenjutsu.**

**Reward: 500 experience per objective.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**?**

The hidden objective worried Akari slightly, but she didn't know what it was, so she couldn't do anything about it. Fortunately enough, the plan called for at least two of her objectives to be finished. As she leapt from the treeline, she flipped through hand seals, took a deep breath, and expelled flames in a stream, the flames at first only barely reaching the tents, but as she flew forward, more and more of the camp was engulfed in the inferno.

Almost instantly the side of her vision started flashing a notification, but she ignored it, holding her hands in the seal and spewing flames from left to right like a sprinkler, wincing at the smell of charred flesh. It was something she'd smelt before in the old world, coming across burnt-out husks of vehicles, corpses still inside, but it wasn't pleasant there, and it wasn't pleasant now either. After a good ten seconds of flame, she cut her Jutsu off and immediately dodged to the left to avoid a Kunai.

Flipping two out of her sealed arm-warmers, she kicked off the dirt towards the bandit who threw it, swinging one to the side to stop his Tanto before he could even begin to swing it, the other plunging straight into his throat. When his blood sprayed out, Akari felt oddly at peace. She'd taken lives before, and had done so just then with her flames, but this was the first time she'd done it so up-close and personally. As the light left his eyes, she pulled the Kunai back out, taking a moment to look at her blood-stained hands.

A nearby bandit tried to use her momentarily dazed state to catch her, but she whirled around, watching him approach slowly and frowning. The man looking like he was moving through syrup or something, he wasn't very fast. As Akari moved to intercept, she realized she was moving slowly as well, and after she blocked his weapon, stabbed his hand, then kicked his knee out and plunged a Kunai into his eye, all in slow-motion, she took a very brief moment to look in a nearby puddle and gasp.

Did she really unlock the Sharingan? But how, why? It was meant to be unlocked in periods of extreme emotions. Then again, since Gamer's Mind was inhibiting her emotions, maybe it unlocked it based on what she was meant to be feeling. A kill at that kind of close-range would surely have made her feel at least something, but she felt calm. With a shrug, Akari flipped through hand-signs and continued burning the camp.

At one point she cut her flames off and equipped some Senbon, tracking a bandit and throwing three of the diminutive metal rods at him, all of which struck his body. It was a shame she wouldn't get to fight the bandit leader, but she'd definitely burned at least fifteen men to death, directly killing two and maiming a third with Shuriken, getting both objectives finished neatly.

She drew a Kunai from her seal and flung it at his head, watching his head get wrenched back from the force as the blade pierced his skull. As she rubbed her arm, a blur of silver to the very edge of her vision caught her attention, letting her lean back in a panic and avoid the katana that was now stabbing empty air. "Tch." She heard, and quickly dropped and rolled to the side, avoiding the follow-up axe kick and spinning up into a standing position.

**Bandit Leader - Level 13**

"Fuck." Was all Akari said, drawing two Kunai. Level 13, six levels above her own. Where Yuji-senpai was, considering he was meant to be handling this bitch, was a mystery. Blocking a thrown Kunai, she watched the woman dart in faster than she could move and swing her katana. Unable to get her Kunai into position in time, Akari simply leaned away from the attack as much as possible, getting a slice across her chest for her troubles.

**-137HP. 1283/1420 HP Remaining.**

Oh fuck. That was a fucking lot of damage for a glancing blow. Growling slightly, Akari tossed her Kunai at the bandit, flipping through more hand-signs and expelling a Great Fireball, catching the woman in the arm when she tried to cartwheel out of the attack. Evidently not a Shinobi, since she could have used Kawarimi on some of the rubble to avoid the obviously dangerous attack. Still skilled in Kenjutsu considering her speed with a Katana. Probably a little over-confident since Akari still had a long slice wound on her chest.

Pulling a few Senbon from her thigh, she quickly performed more hand-seals, flinging the Senbon and coating them in flames, grinning widely when two of the flaming weapons embedded themselves deeply within the womans leg, setting fire to her clothing and scorching her skin, prompting her to scream in pain. As Akari made to grab more Senbon, the woman lunged forward, swinging her katana wildly and keeping Akari from grabbing any more weapons.

Because of her wounded leg distracting her and slowing her down, the woman was far slower at moving, but made up for it in ferocity, her swings being far too strong for Akari to outright block. A single misplaced step on some rubble and Akari watched in horror as the katana swept towards her head. In a panic, she threw her left arm up, watching in agony and fear as the Katana cut her whole fucking hand off.

**-472 HP. 811/1420 HP Remaining. Crippled.**

"FUCK!" She screamed, gripping her hand and using her opponent's momentary surprise to hand an accidentally chakra-reinforced kick straight to her ribs, snapping several of the bones and impaling her lungs with them, sending the woman flying across the camp. "Okay, fuck. Okay." She picked up the now-removed hand and put it on her leg, her hand shaking from the pain as she all but forced her chakra into it, forming a familiar hand-seal in her other hand and watching as it dimply glowed with green light.

She'd read about one-handed hand seals, and never really bothered practising much. It seemed that now though, she was going to just have to fucking try. Putting the severed hand against her stump, she pressed her hand to it and kept her eyes glued to the spot. Immediately, she began wanting to scream out as she felt the flesh growing and re-attaching in an absolutely horrifying sensation. It was like hooks being stabbed into both sides of her wrist and pulling the two halves together.

She felt a chakra signature approach but recognized it as their sensei so ignored it in favour of focusing on her barely-attached hand. At one point she may have heard him say something, but she was far too distracted making sure she wasn't a fucking trans-radial amputee. Losing a hand? Might as well say fucking 'bye-bye' to being a Shinobi. No more hand-seals, and no attacking with her left side.

A few moments passed, and Akari felt another two signatures approach. As one made to come close to her, she felt the larger signature block it, and she was never more grateful to her sensei than at that moment. If Nui had leapt at her, she probably would have lost concentration and undone all her work, which was pretty fucking important. As long as she could reconnect the nerves and get her blood flowing again before any necrosis set in and bits began to die, she wouldn't lose any motor function in the hand. She had a few hours, but it was safest to ensure it was reconnected as quickly as possible so she didn't have to spend any time rehabilitating.

The first order of business was re-connecting the severed Radius bone, which was a simple fix, but crucial in maintaining stability when working on the rest of the severed point. Then, she had to reconnect all the little bits like her circulatory and nervous system. Her fingers twitched, and Akari stifled a gasp at the electric feeling that jolted her wrist when the nerves all re-connected at once, quickly resealing the veins, arteries and capillaries together, before finally attaching the lioments and ligaments together then closing her skin back up over the top of those muscles. She'd have to get an actually experienced Iryo-nin to look at it, but as she flexed her fingers, she was rather pleased with her healing.

Of course, it might have been that her hand would simply re-attach when she healed fully, but Akari was not about to risk that. Since the hand didn't magically just go poof onto her hand when she began healing, it was likely that for amputated parts, she had to actually reconnect them, whereas stuff like the slice that was on her chest, using her Mystical Palm just healed it automatically when her health raised.

She frowned at the line of white around her wrist from the new flesh, a marker of what happened during her first damn mission, but it didn't matter. Standing up slowly, Akari wobbled a little as she looked at her chakra and frowned.

**475/1500 Remaining.**

If that was accurate, Akari had spent more than thirty seconds healing herself, yet it felt like an eternity and an instant at the same time. With a shrug, Akari looked at her team with a sheepish grin. "Tada!" She waggled her fingers, and apparently broke the dam for Nui, as she lunged at Akari.

"Don't fucking do that again." She muttered into her ear.

"Do what? I didn't exactly plan on fighting the fucking leader." She glared at Yuji as she said that, and the heavy-set man had the decency to look sheepish. "What. Happened?" She growled out, freeing herself from Nui's grasp and walking over to the collapsed tent where the leader had landed. Finding her still barely alive, Akari jabbed a Senbon into her head with little fanfare, wrenching it out alongside the two in her leg.

"She got away from me." The man said in a deadpan voice.

* * *

**Boom. Third chapter. Now...I'm really fucking tempted to make this so I do a chapter of this every two days, and then in the days between I upload Akari Nanashi. So it'd be, for example. Monday: This. Tuesday: Akari Nanashi. Wednesday: This. Etc etc. Sound good? Great.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Snek is cute. I like smol snek.**

_**Guys, I think we broke Fire.**_

**Meh, smol snek don't care, smol snek cute.**

_**Yeah, definitely broken.**_

**Hey, if I have to write sad scenes, you have to endure me making comfort scenes like smol snek.**

_**Chapter 4**_

* * *

The team made their way back to Konoha quietly, and Akari was thankful for that.

Mostly because she was still reeling from the implications of losing a body-part. If her hand was removed and she failed to re-attach it, what would happen? Would it re-emerge when she got to full health? Would she be permanently crippled? There were too many questions, so Akari tucked them away and instead focused on a few more important events.

**Quest completed!**

**Destroy bandit camp harassing Fire Country citizens.**

**Objective: Destroy camp and slay at least 75% of inhabitants - Completed.**

**Reward earned: 1250 experience.**

**Bonus objectives:**

**Kill 15 bandits by yourself - Completed. Kill bandit leader - Completed. Get over 50% accuracy with Shurikenjutsu - Completed.**

**Reward: 500 experience per objective. 1500 experience earned.**

**Hidden Objectives:**

**Survive and heal crippling injury - Completed. 1500 experience earned.**

**Kill at least 50% of all bandits within the camp using Katon Jutsu - Incomplete. 1000 experience.**

That was rather aggravating, and it gave Akari the idea that perhaps the Game could predict the future. How else would it know to make that a Hidden Objective? Alongside that, she also had the individual kills for the bandits, which totalled 950 experience, then 1000 experience for killing the leader, plus the Bonus objective reward for that feat, which all added up to 6200 experience. Cracking open her status screen, Akari glanced through it with a smirk.

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 8**

**Age: 10**

**Experience: 2783/8000**

**To Next Level: 5217**

**Title: Genin - 50% Experience gain from Jonin-Sensei tutoring.**

**Health Points: 1420 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 42/s - Vit x Str - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 1500 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 50/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 6**

**Vitality - 7 **

**Charisma - 12**

**Intelligence - 10**

**Agility - 11**

**Wisdom - 5**

**Luck - 8**

**Six Skill Points Available**

If that was how much experience she'd get for a well-done C-rank mission, stuff like A-ranks would be incredibly valuable. Of course, she wouldn't be seeing an A-rank until Jonin or maybe late-chunin, but that was beside the point. "Hey Akari, what's so funny?" Nui said as she wandered over, ignoring their sensei's grumble about keeping formation.

"Oh nothing, just glad to have finally unlocked my Sharingan." And she was. It was fucking amazing. Just looking at it in her techniques made her feel giddy.

**Sharingan: Stage One - A single-tomoe Sharingan. Active use grants enhanced perception, improved visual acuity, and true photographic memory. Repeated usage will upgrade to two then three tomoe. Usage - 5CP/s.**

She felt the need to read that several times. True. Photographic. Memory. As in, a memory that can perfectly recall things with 100% accuracy. Reading a book? She could now remember every page she had read. See a friend? Oh hey, it's not them, they just look similar. With a fucking 'true' photographic memory, that was going to be obscenely useful.

Of course, the enhanced perception and improved visual acuity was great as well, since it basically translated to perceiving reality at a much higher pace, making everyone look like they're moving in slow-motion, including herself. Suddenly a lot of moves in the Interceptor Fist style made sense. Before, she wouldn't have been able to react to certain attacks fast enough for the move to be effective. Now that she could see the attack coming, she could easily use the correct move to intercept the attack and retaliate.

She still preferred her knives, but at least now they made sense. "Cool. So hey, when we get back to Konoha, want to go out for some Dango?" Sighing, Akari turned to smile at the enthusiastic girl.

"Sure."

* * *

"Fuck off."

Akari murmured into her pillow, trying to ward away the familiar and aggravating presence from beside her pillow. As it slipped up and onto her head, she tried warding it off again, but to no avail, as it simply latched onto her arm. "Ugh, fine, I'll fucking feed you. I swear you're lucky you're so cute." The albino snake wrapped around her arm hissed happily at her. "Yeah yeah, love you too."

When she got home after her first mission, she was hoping that life would calm down a little. Unfortunately, the war chose that moment to kick into full-swing, meaning she and her team got sent out on at least a dozen C-rank missions when typically they would have had at least a few D-rank at this point. Akari mused about the idea of being one of the only Genin in Konoha to reach Chunin without a single D-rank.

During one of these C-ranks, Akari stumbled across the aforementioned albino snake, and despite Nui's protests about keeping the reptile anywhere near her, she kept it around, taking it home and having it as a pet. When she first got Monty, she didn't know what to call it. When she asked around and found out it was a Ball Python, the name practically chose itself, even if she was the only person in the world to understand the reference of Monty the Python. The biggest problem was the fact that someone told Akari the snake was a female, so the name didn't fit too well, but she decided the joke was worth it.

Hearing another hiss from her arm, Akari sleepily trudged over to a box on her desk and threw it open, pulling a mouse out by the tail and flicking it once in the head to disorient it before dangling it in front of her arm. Feeling Monty coil up, Akari watched with a yawn as the snake suddenly lunged forwards, engulfing the mouse whole. It was a rather morbid yet fascinating thing to watch the mouse disappearing entirely into the snake's mouth, but Akari had already seen it a few dozen times, so it wasn't as fascinating as the first few times.

Flopping back onto her bed, she felt Monty slide up and coil around into a ball on her stomach. With one hand she gently pet the snake on the head a few times before stopping. She recalled that snakes didn't really enjoy being pet too much, and she worried that Monty might not actually like to have her hand on the top of her head.

As if in spite of her former world, with its silly unaffectionate snakes, Monty raised her head and pressed it against the underside of Akari's hand, rubbing it back and forth a few times before lowering again, and Akari followed it down with a smile. Apparently, for some reason, snakes in this world 'do' like being pet. Fancy that.

Yawning, Akari decided she was too awake to try and sleep again, so she carefully tried to put Monty down so she could leave her room, only for the snake to coil around her arm and climb up so she was draped over Akari's shoulders. With a shrug, Akari just left the room, wandering downstairs and waving at her mother. Honestly, that woman just takes everything in stride, barely even blinking at Akari wandering around with a python on her shoulders. "Heya okaa-san. Can't sleep, gonna go...wander I guess?" She questioned more than said.

"Okay honey, just try to be back for dinner." Her mother said with a smile, before going back to reading. Akari wasn't actually sure exactly what her mother did, all she knew was it had something to do with administration. With another wave she left the house, looking left then right before shrugging and wandering left. She knew her way around the Uchiha compound just fine, but since she didn't really know where she wanted to go, she didn't really care where she ended up.

Her feet ended up taking her outside of the compound and into Konoha proper. The Uchiha had their own little closed-off section, with large walls surrounding their district, but it wasn't as though they couldn't leave, it was the same for all the larger clans, made it easier if the majority of them stuck to one area. It was usually expected that members of a clan would reside within their compound, and wouldn't really venture into the other compounds. Akari decided to ignore this unspoken rule, and could regularly be found pretty much all across Konoha, from the Nara compound to the Inuzuka, and everywhere in-between.

More than once she'd been asked what she was doing, with the simple answer of 'wandering' confusing some. Of course, just because Akari realized there was no rule saying that clansmen should remain within their compounds and not visit others unless necessary, many others took it as though it were an actual rule, and were confused to see her so freely wandering about within their districts.

"Hey kiddo!" A girl, about the same age as Akari and with bright purple hair came charging up, staring at the snake on her shoulders. "Where'd you get that cutie?"

"Uhh, in a forest?" Akari replied with a shrug, watching with amusement as Monty slithered around her neck once before coiling down her arm and stretching out the inspect the newcomer. It was quite cute since Monty did it to everyone new that Akari approached or was approached by. Fortunately, the snake seemed to realize that most people would pass by and they'd rarely see them again, and so didn't try to inspect every pedestrian. "Why?"

"No reason." She said quickly, stretching an arm out and surprising Akari when Monty actually slipped onto her arm.

Tilting her head, Akari watched the snake as it slowly wrapped around the newcomer's arm. "Huh, she's never done that before. Let me guess, you work with snakes or something?" The girl chuckled slightly as she twisted her arm about.

"Something like that." She then extended her arm again, and Akari watched as Monty slipped back onto her own arm. "You should look after that one, she's a keeper. Both of you." She stuck her tongue out at Akari when she made to ask her whether she actually spoke with Monty. "Your snake is smarter than you think. Anyways, nice to meetcha, but I'm off." The girl then slipped past Akari, leaving her stood in the street as the ran off.

"...Meh." Akari reached up to pet Monty on the head. "I knew you were smart anyway." The snake darted her tongue out to touch Akari's cheek, and she giggled at the tickling sensation. "Yeah yeah, love you too, boo."

* * *

"Uchiha, report!"

Akari rolled her eyes. "Three Chunin-level guards, one Jonin-level, no sign of the primary target." She said with a yawn. It'd have been easier to scout with a Byakugan, but her Sharingan was good enough for simple reconnaissance, and it was easy to remember exactly what she saw with her eyes, especially now that they'd progressed to three-tomoe thanks to near-constant usage. "I could just use Great Fireball and level the place?" Akari got a swatted head for her suggestion.

"Idiot. We need to take the target down, if the place is in flames he'll scarper and we lose our chance. I'm not forfeiting this chance because of your impatience." He growled, and Akari crossed her arms, quirking an eyebrow. "And no, I'm not telling you what our objective is. You know not to use Katon Jutsu on our target, we need him unburnt, otherwise, the mission is a failure."

Akari just threw her arms up. "Fine. I mean, I guess he's carrying documents or some shit we need so burning him would toast the documents and make this all useless. He didn't seem to be important enough to warrant us going after him, so it's likely a time-sensitive event." Akari hated how her sensei wore a face-mask, it made reading his expressions fucking impossible.

"Just get ready for a fight." He growled before going back to double-checking his own equipment.

Akari chuckled. "You know that reaction basically told me all I needed to know?" A lazily-thrown Kunai prompted Akari to curse the man out, though there was no heat in it. Instead, Akari turned her attention to her stats. More importantly, her level.

**Level: 17**

She was right, those C-ranks really were good for her level, even if her teammates were progressing way slower than her. Nui was only level 10, and Shichu was level 9, so evidently her objectives were giving her a pretty major boost. Their sensei was still level 55, presumably because he needed a lot more experience than them, and they were the ones doing most if not all of the work while he kicked back with a fucking martini and watched.

Okay, maybe not that far, but the point was still there. The best part was the fact that Monty actually had a level. Granted, she was only level 2 so far, but it still meant she could get more powerful, maybe even enough that Akari could bring her along for missions. Just for the company, she wanted the experience still. And hell, this next mission must have been important considering the absurd experience reward, and the fact that the second and third objectives were hidden.

The bonus objectives were a little odd though.

**Quest!**

**Walls come tumbling down.**

**Objectives:**

**Slay designated target without destroying the body.**

**?**

**?**

**Reward: 50,000 experience.**

**Bonus objectives:**

**Heal at least 150 Shinobi.**

**Gain a title.**

**Reward: 15,000 experience per objective.**

**Hidden Objectives:**

**?**

The healing one made little sense considering they were meant to be killing someone, but evidently her quest was telling her there was more to this quest than it appeared. The title also sounded a bit odd, as though she could do something worthy of being named something. Then again, with the objective of healing a hundred and fifty Shinobi, perhaps she'd be known as an amazing medic. Having Hidden Objectives was a little worrying, as the last one had her lose her hand.

Absently rubbing the white line marking the spot, she gazed at the building again, catching sight of someone clothed like their target entering through the door. "Yuji-sensei, they've arrived." She quickly pointed out the figure just before the door closed. "Shall we move in?"

The man nodded, and the four of them began jumping from tree to tree, quickly emerging from the forest and scurrying across the open ground in a few seconds, avoiding the vision of the guards in the darkness and reaching the wall. Swiftly the four of them charged around the wall and emerged directly before the surprised guards. Before they could yell out in surprise, Akari had already stabbed one through the eye, while Yuji had snapped the neck of the Jonin. Shichu used his shadow to force a Chunin to slit his own throat and Nui just punched her opponent in the chest, driving the air from his lungs. Quickly transitioning, Nui locked the man in a grapple, snapping his arm before managing to finish him off by twisting his neck.

With nary an extra moment spared for the deceased, the quartet tossed their corpses around the corner of the wall and made their way along the building. As they made their way to the location of the target, Akari felt a prickling on the back of her neck, like her hair standing up. Immediately she recognized the feeling, she'd felt it often enough when fighting in her old world, as the sense of imminent danger.

Following her instincts, she quickly dived to the side, and not a second too soon, as a brace of Senbon intersected the place she was just stood in. As she turned to look towards where the Senbon game from, a gurgling sound drew her attention. "Shit." She muttered as she saw Shichu and Nui staring at their sensei, who had taken a Senbon to the throat.

Before she could even consider trying to heal him, more Senbon flew through the air, striking the surprised man in his throat repeatedly and killing him outright. "Give up kiddos, and maybe you'll live." A voice announced to the three Genin, and they saw a man holding some Senbon between his fingers. "Well, you might at least." He pointed a Senbon at Akari, drawing a growl from her.

Flicking a Kunai into her hand, she hurled it at the man, who just intercepted it casually with a Senbon of his own. "Try it, I fucking dare you." Her eyes flickered into the triple-tomoed Sharingan as she glared, her teeth gritted. Shichu could die, she barely knew the Nara and he wasn't exactly nice, but Nui was different, Nui was a lot nicer, and knew when to give her space. Dare she say it, Nui was as close to a good friend as Akari was ever going to get.

Lunging forwards, Akari attempted to meet the man in Taijutsu, but he seemed content to keep her away from him, using his Senbon liberally to cut her off, a few jabbing into her arm. Ripping them out swiftly and smoothly, Akari ignored the little damage pop-up as she hurled them back at the man with a flick of her hand, which apparently wasn't what he was expecting, since one of them managed to slip past his defensive Senbon throw and jam into his torso.

"Bitch!" He yelled as he dug the Senbon out. "Alright, enough fun and fucking games." He grabbed at least twenty Senbon and unleashed them, immediately replacing them with more and continuously throwing the thin and lethal projectiles at Akari. As she made to dodge, a pained yelp caught her attention. She flickered her gaze away from the man to look towards her two remaining teammates. Nui had a Senbon stuck in her arm, Shichu was trying to use his shadows to cover them all, but he didn't have anywhere near enough control over his Chakra, taking several Senbon to the chest for his troubles, and their Sensei was still rather dead.

Akari had hoped the man was simply testing them and had used a Kawarimi to escape, but evidently he was caught by surprise.

With a growl, Akari dived under another wave of Senbon, slipping a dozen shuriken into her hand as she ran through hand seals and lit them on fire, throwing them in a spread pattern at her opponent. When he smirked and diverted them all with Senbon, Akari gave him a smirk of her own, tugging on the strings she'd tied to two of them for a redirection, making both stab into his arms from either side. The flames quickly set his clothes on fire as she lunged forwards once again, thrusting a Kunai forwards and stabbing it straight into his chest, twisting the blade and relishing in the fearful gaze his eyes held as he swiftly bled out.

With a sigh, Akari took a moment to breathe, in that moment almost collapsing with a blur to her vision and shaking knees. Frowning, Akari looked over herself, with the only wounds she'd suffered being the few puncture wounds in her...arm..."Fuck." Akari opened her status menu and closed her eyes when she saw the poisoned debuff, quickly running through hand-seals and using Mystical Palm on herself. Her health slowly recovered, but the poisoned status debuff refused to go away.

As she kept her Jutsu up to stop her health draining, she remembered her team and quickly darted over to Nui. Shichu had already collapsed, having taken numerous Senbon to the torso, but Nui was still conscious since she'd only taken one to her arm. "Shit, stay awake Nui, please." Akari murmured, quickly placing her own hands on the girl and wanting to scream when she realized she couldn't actually remove the poison, it had spread throughout her blood-stream.

Nui's eyes glazed over from the poison spreading, and Akari saw the little notification in the side of her vision but ignored it. She knew what it would fucking say, and she hated it, because it meant that, even as moderately as she tried to avoid caring about her team, some small part of Akari cared about Nui.

That night, as Nui died in her arms, Akari awoke the Mangekyo Sharingan.

* * *

"Akari, come on, you have to eat something."

Her brother tried to make her eat, but Akari was too dazed to really care. The Mangekyo Sharingan. Earned when the recipient experiences the trauma of loss. Losing Nui was strange. She'd only known the enthusiastic civilian-born girl for a few months, and in that time, she didn't realize just how close the girl had become to her. Raising a hand slowly to her shoulder, she laid a delicate hand atop Monty's head, glad that her brother had decided to bring the snake with him to join up with her.

Even though she had a fear for reptiles, Akari could still remember the time when Nui had willingly extended a shaking arm towards Monty, letting the snake inspect and even delicately lick her hand. All because Akari wanted to keep the snake. Or the time Nui had gotten her a set of armguards just so she could give it to Akari for her eleventh birthday. They weren't anything special, just typical forearm protectors that were lightened, because Akari complained about the standard ones she was given which were too heavy for her to use. But it was the principle of the gift, that Nui liked Akari enough to get her a gift, and actually put some thought into it.

And then, just as quickly as she had barrelled into Akari's life, she had barreled straight back out.

With a sigh, Akari turned to look at her brother. "Aniki, what was on that scroll? What was so fucking important that my entire team bar me had to die for it?" Her brother mumbled something under his breath, and Akari narrowed her eyes. "Aniki." Her tone brought his gaze to her own. "What. Was. On. It?" Akari had looted the corpse of their target and found a sealed scroll. And while she might have been too dazed to care about reading it at the time, too busy trying to carry Nui's body out of there, now that she was a little more soundly-minded, she wanted to know.

"It was a troop-movement scroll. With it, we can pick our next targets and advance further into Tsuchi no Kuni by choosing the weaker positions." He finally admitted, wincing when Akari went back to staring at the floor. "I hate this, but orders are orders. Akari, you've got three days rest before you're being reassigned. They apparently need everyone for this offensive, and your Iryo-nin status means you're going right up to the support camp." Sei laid a hand on her shoulder, pressing it gently as Monty licked his thumb. "I'll be right up there with you Imouto."

He left her then, leaving the room she was in and walking down the corridor. With a sigh, Akari opened her quest notification, having finally gotten an answer.

**Quest updated.**

**Walls come tumbling down.**

**Objectives:**

**Slay designated target without destroying the body - Completed.**

**Support front-line offensive as Iryo-nin.**

**Reward: 50,000 experience.**

**Bonus objectives:**

**Heal at least 150 Shinobi.**

**Gain a title.**

**Reward: 15,000 experience per objective.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**Loot the target corpse for scroll - Completed. 5000 experience earned.**

**Unlock Mangekyo Sharingan - Completed. 15,000 experience earned.**

**?**

It seemed that the experience earned by looting the scroll would be granted at the end of the quest. Same with her own Mangekyo. However, killing the target gave her 1500 experience, so it seemed actual kills are given immediately. It was a bit confusing, but in the end Akari didn't really care too much. With her team gone, she didn't have a Jonin-sensei, yet she was still counted as a Genin in her title, meaning she wasn't getting that bonus experience gain.

Feeling the comforting weight of Monty on her shoulders begin sliding down her arm, she placed it against the bed and let Monty slither off her. Pulling up her status, Akari closed her eyes to make it easier to read, gritting her teeth at the stats visible. Even with her improvements, she wasn't strong enough to protect those she cared about. When she had told the Iryo-nin who was assigned to her what happened, she was quite quickly given a crash-course in the Poison Extraction Jutsu.

Too little, too late.

* * *

**You all have...no idea how much it means to be to see this story being so loved.**

**Seriously. If this keeps up, this story will become my most followed, favourited and reviewed, and it's not even hit a thousand views yet...**

**The thing is, I was absurdly worried when I started writing this, because by the end of the first chapter, I was really drained. Writing all those Spawn Locations, all those Techniques and perks and stats and everything else...it was hard. But I persevered and, even before posting the first chapter I'd written out most of chapter 2 as well.**

**And now, to see you all enjoying it so much...it really just warms my heart. I will try to ensure I keep the quality as high as possible, and the word-spam from Statuses and Techniques as low as possible, and I hope you all continue enjoying my work!**

**Now, here's the end-chapter status for you all!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 17**

**Age: 11**

**Experience: 12759/17000**

**To Next Level: 4241**

**Title: Genin - 50% Experience gain from Jonin-Sensei tutoring.**

**Health Points: 2000 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 100/s - Vit x Str - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 2650 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 165/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 10**

**Vitality - 10**

**Charisma - 20**

**Intelligence - 15**

**Agility - 26**

**Wisdom - 11**

**Luck - 18**

_**VERY IMPORTANT**_

**I've changed some of the Chakra costs and put the techniques in here so you can see the difference. Because of how Akari's Chakra is calculated, she's going to be a bit of a powerhouse, so I'm changing the value of how much CP is used in casting techniques to compensate. I mean, right now she could spit out 15 Great Fireballs in a row and not be phased. So yeah, changing that, and all the others are getting bumped up to the same rough level.**

**But, I'm quite bad at using Jutsu, so Akari isn't really gonna be using them very often, kinda imitating myself there, I'd forget I have these special abilities and just go for a stab.**

**This does not mean it'll constantly change to match Akari. This is a one-time change because Akari was unbalanced. Being able to cast 8 Great Fireballs in a row without stopping at Level 2 was ridiculous, so I changed it, and these are the new values for the rest of the story.**

**Techniques**

**Mangekyo Sharingan - The penultimate form of the Sharingan, this Dojutsu grants two special abilities (One if user only has one eye) often unique to the user. Usage: 25CP/s. Warning: Will cause Ocular stress when used, leading to permanent blindness. Can be avoided by obtaining Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.**

**Left Eye: Kami No Te (The Hand of God) - This technique grants the user the ability to completely manipulate the ground around them within a fifty-meter radius. This requires great concentration but can be devastating if used correctly. Usage - 500CP/Cast, 50CP/s to maintain. (Must keep Mangekyo activated to use)**

**Right Eye: Kami No Shinpan (The Judgment of God) - This technique is a direct-contact Jutsu. If Akari lays a hand upon her target, they are 'judged'. If they have hostile intent towards Akari or those she cares about, they are judged negatively, and a Chakra pulse will stop their heart, as well as demolishing their entire Chakra network. Even if their heart is restarted somehow, their Chakra will be forever destroyed. If they do not have any hostile intent, they will be judged positively, and nothing will happen. Usage - 1000CP/Cast. (Will cause damage equivalent to five minutes of Mangekyo Usage with each Cast.)**

**Susanoo: As the user has both Mangekyo, the Susanoo has been unlocked, a large Chakra construct capable of being formed around the user for protection and offence. This construct can be summoned in multiple forms, each one being larger, more protective and with more abilities.**

**Level 1 - A rib-cage surrounds the user, protecting them from harm but lacking offence. The form will slowly grow until it is formed into a large skeletal structure, where musculature and skin will grow, finally forming into a giant humanoid: 500CP/Cast, 25CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 2 - Armour forms around the Susanoo for added protection, though it is not a complete protection: 1250CP/Cast from nothing, 500CP/Cast from Level 1, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 3 - The Susanoo will now form the final pieces of armour, becoming fully-enshrouded. The Susanoo will gain wings for flight, with Ornate robes over heavy armour granting the construct hefty defences. The Complete-body Susanoo is capable of summoning weaponry to assist it during battle: 2500CP/Cast from nothing, 1500CP/Cast from level 1, 1000CP/Cast from level 2, 100CP/s to maintain.**

**The Mangekyo Sharingan must stay active at all times during Susanoo usage, which will put immense strain on the eyes of the user.**

**Fire Release: Great Fireball - A well-known Jutsu within the Uchiha Clan. Moulding Chakra within your lungs, you can expel flames as either a colossal ball of fire, or as a continuous stream of flame. Ball Usage - 350 CP/each. Stream Usage - 50CP/s.**

**Substitution Jutsu - An Academy standard, the art of swapping your position with an inanimate object up to the same size as yourself when in imminent danger. Usage - 275CP/each.**

**Transformation Jutsu - Take another form and hide in plain sight. This ability puts an illusion over the user, but is easily disrupted. Target must be within 2 feet of height to caster, and within 50lbs of weight. Usage - 175CP/cast, 5CP/s to maintain.**

**Clone Jutsu - An illusionary non-corporeal clone. Great for distractions, but not much else. Upgrades into Shadow Clones, which are corporeal. Usage - 150CP/each.**

**Mystical Palm Jutsu/Beginner - The catch-all medical ability. Able to regenerate wounds of varying degrees. Usage - 25CP/s. Heal-rate - 25HP/s. Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate. Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Poison Extraction Jutsu - This ability drains poisons and foreign bodies from wounds. Length of time for extraction varies depending on strength and amount of poison. Usage - 100CP/s.**

**Shunshin - The pretty-much teleportation ability. This Jutsu acts by hyper-enhancing a Shinobi's abilities, essentially enabling them to run at absurd speed for a fraction of a second. Cost is calculated by distance. Usage 50CP/meter.**


	5. Chapter 5

**You all are seriously too kind!**

**I read each and every review, and I love them all, thank you all so much for taking the time to write those words out. Yes, that includes Chillingbear's. Being criticized honestly is a good thing. I will admit, this story is pretty similar to others. Akari has the Sharingan, she's an Uchiha, she's taking part in the Third Shinobi War. And I do think my pacing is a bit off for the first few chapters. But to be honest, I think a lot of stories go rather quickly in the beginning with establishing the world, or in this case the...36 different spawn locations. Yeesh.**

**Again, thank you all so much for your kind words!**

**Now, a bit of a shorter chapter today, because there's way less information spam, mostly because I don't need it.**

**I'll try to avoid posting status screens and whatnot too much, it inflates the word count and makes the story a lot longer than it seems. Every story will try to only have one Status screen, right at the bottom, with Akari mentioning it, but it hopefully won't be needed in the middle of a chapter again. Same with techniques, they'll appear once when Akari learns them, but otherwise will only appear at the bottom of a chapter.**

_**Chapter 5**_

* * *

"You need to take a break."

Akari just waved off whoever was nagging her, one hand still buried within the guts of a Shinobi. She got her three days of rest, then she got sent to her own little slice of hell, the Support Camp. Barely a mile from the front lines was where the camp was rooted, and it was filled with Iryo-nin all running about in organized chaos trying to keep people alive and fighting-fit. "I'm fine." She murmured when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You're not fine, you're on the verge of Chakra Exhaustion." The medic who she was sharing the tent with said in a firm voice. Akari turned to give them a deadpan look.

"I know myself well enough to know exactly what I can and can't take, trust me. Besides, if I exhausted myself saving 5 people, I'd be conked out and useless for the next 25 to come through and die. Don't worry, I won't push myself too far." Akari gave a little smirk before turning back to her patient, slowly sealing up the gaping wound on his abdomen.

The worst part of healing other people was that to ensure infections didn't set in, she had to physically place her hand as close to the wound as possible, preferably inside, to draw out all the foreign matter. She could do it from outside, but there was a high risk she'd miss something, and it cost a lot more Chakra to use the Poison Extraction Jutsu for removing foreign bodies.

It was much cheaper to simply use the Mystical Palm to pull all the material out. Even if it took a little longer and was a lot more gruesome, it was by far the cheapest option Chakra-wise. As the slice finally sealed up, leaving a long white line on the unconscious mans body, she tugged her bloodied gloves off and tossed them into a bag with several dozen matching sets of gloves. "Right, whose next?"

"Nobody. You're not staying in the support camp any longer." A voice announced to Akari, and she crossed her arms as she turned to face a black-haired man with purple marks going from his nose up and over his eyes. Stood beside him was none other than her brother. She'd seen him around the support camp a few times, presumably he nagged someone high up that he wanted to guard the camp, which had nothing to do with the fact his beloved sister was there. Totally.

Akari just frowned at them both. "Then where are we going?" The man, who Akari noticed had rather snake-like eyes, narrowed his eyes.

"You would do well to watch your tongue around your superiors." Akari rolled her eyes, earning a distinctly snake-like hiss. "Impudent whelp."

"Akari." Her brother called her name, leading her to look at him. "Please don't antagonise Orochimaru-sama." Akari just rolled her shoulders.

"Yeah yeah whatever, so Aniki, why am I being removed from the camp? Did I not heal enough people?" Akari thought she was doing rather well all things considered, but she'd only healed 78 Shinobi in the time she'd been within the camp. Her brother chuckled at her. "What?" Even Orochimaru had a little smile on his lips. "Seriously, what's so funny?"

Her brother put his hand on her shoulder. "Kind of the opposite. You've healed plenty, and now that we're going on a breakthrough operation, the commander of this sector wanted you up with the front-line medic squad, rather than back here." Akari gawked at him, but when it was clear she wasn't being messed with, she felt both proud, and pissed off.

She was proud that her medical skills were being recognised, since healing other people where you had to actually know their anatomy was fucking hard. But she was now being shoved to the front-line medic squad, where there'd be fighting going on all over the fucking place, and then be expected to focus enough to heal someone when at any moment a stray Kunai could hit her or her patient? That sounded like it was going to be a challenge.

And while Akari liked most challenges, this one sounded rather more difficult to her typical challenge. "Wait, so I'm literally going to be up on the front? Because let's not forget the fact I'm still a fucking Genin!" Her brother winced slightly at that, but Orochimaru just smirked. "And what's so funny snake-face?" He lost the smirk quickly, replacing it with a glowering scowl.

"Know your place, girl. You should know you aren't on the level of a typical Genin. If you still had a Jonin teaching you, you would have been field-promoted to Chunin by now. Don't try to hide behind a rank like a snivelling child to get out of the darker side of your career." Orochimaru turned and left before Akari could retort, leaving Akari to stick her tongue out at his back while her brother just pinched his nose.

"Akari, what did I say about antagonising him? He's a Sannin, surely you've heard of them by now." Akari just shrugged.

"Nope, too cooped up saving lives in here, not got time to learn about has-been Shinobi who throw their rank around like that. Asshole."

Slouching his shoulders, her brother bent his knees slightly to be level with Akari, a frown on his lips. "Well try to avoid pissing him off, yeah? For me at least?" Akari met his gaze for a moment before looking away and nodding. Evidently, that wasn't enough for Sei, as he quickly put a hand under her chin and made her meet his gaze again. "Promise me."

Rolling her eyes, Akari nodded again. "Fine, I promise I won't antagonize the snake-bastard." She said with a smirk.

* * *

Throwing another of her rapidly-dwindling Kunai at an approaching Kumo-nin, she cursed as the man deflected it with one of his own and charged her, another Kunai in hand.

Stepping back, Akari planted her foot and pivoted around his charge, swinging around to a roundhouse which scored a hit on the back of his head, sending him to the ground and burying his face in the dirt. Before he could recover, Akari threw another two Kunai which embedded in either of his shoulders, succeeding in locking them down. Whipping out a Senbon, she stabbed him through the neck with it, quickly grabbing her thrown weapons and storing them back in her pouch, before a yell of 'Medic!' caught her ears.

As she charged towards the voice, she found herself attributing her current situation to something from her old world, the first world war. Mud and Blood everywhere, with numerous dismembered and mutilated corpses from gruesomely powerful Jutsu carving swathes across the battlefield. Many of the fighters were using Taijutsu and Shurikenjutsu, but occasionally someone would pull out a Ninjutsu, and a wave of Chakra-using attacks would erupt across the battlefield for a few minutes before dying off as everyone tried to weather the onslaught using their own attacks.

It was extremely similar to Trench Warfare, where the Ninjutsu was followed by a horrendous slaughter of both sides as they charged across the newly-made No Man's Land.

Akari contributed with liberal usage of her Great Fireball, much to the amazement of nearby comrades. The Great Fireball was called that for a reason, it was more than three times as tall as Akari, yet she would spit out several during the Ninjutsu-phase of combat before getting back to her role as a combat-medic, carefully managing her Chakra so she never ran dry, silently praising her fast regeneration rate.

Many Iryo-nin looked at her funny when she referred to herself as a 'combat-medic', but after she saved an isolated group of them from an Iwa-nin trying to attack them, they seemed to concede her point. Many of the medics still thought she should just remain as part of the group and stay still so Shinobi could come to them to get healed, but Akari reasoned that the ones who could make it to the medics could be handled by them, and Akari, along with a few of the braver Iryo-nin, could go out and find the more extreme cases, bringing them back from the brink and stabilizing them until they could be brought back to the support camp for a more thorough surgery.

Ducking underneath a stray Katon Jutsu, Akari flipped through Hand-signs, firing a Great Fireball back along the trajectory of the initial Jutsu where an enemy-nin stood staring at her, getting several pained yells for her attack. With a slide, Akari skidded along the final meters of ground towards the wounded and unconscious Shinobi, and boy was he in a state. His left arm was gone up to his bicep, and as she couldn't see it anywhere near, presumably he'd lost it in a particularly violent way. The left side of his torso was heavily singed by a Katon Jutsu, but fortunately, while it would be excruciating for the man, it had succeeded in cauterising his wound somewhat and preventing him from bleeding out before she reached him.

Quickly waving off the one who yelled medic, Akari got to work. First, she had to remove the burnt tissue. Then, as much of the foreign material as possible needed to be removed from the wound to stop it from entering his blood-stream. Akari was surprised when a hand was thrust in front of her face, and she saw the Shinobi from before holding what Akari presumed to be the missing arm. With a hurried 'thank you', Akari took the arm and laid to down next to the man, still cleaning his arm as much as she could, but with a new objective in mind.

Once the majority of burnt tissue, dirt and blood was cleaned out, Akari took the severed arm, repeating the process before she pressed it against the stump, lighting her hands up with green only to stop and roll backwards. Not a moment too soon, as a Tanto blade stabbed through the air and chased her as she jumped into the air from her roll. Drawing a Kaiken dagger and a Kunai, Akari flipped the Kunai around to a reversed-grip and glared at her opponent.

Without preamble, the pair of them charged forwards, with Akari swiping her Kaiken forwards, crashing it against her opponent's blade and attempting to stab him with her Kunai. Spotting the oncoming blade, her opponent leaned backwards, snatching Akari's hand and throwing her over his body. Before she could slam into the ground, Akari brought her arms up against her chest, then kicked both feet towards the man, catching him in the face with both and snapping his neck.

As his grip slackened in death, Akari used his face as a spring-board to gain a little altitude and observe the area. It was looking pretty good, the enemy had lost a lot of men with this fresh assault, and it looked like they were wavering. With a quick hand-sign, Akari felt her eye begin bleeding and her Chakra be dragged from her body as she cast Kami No Te. Without warning, spears of earth abruptly began to emerge from the ground between the Kumo/Iwa/Kiri ninja and her friendly forces, almost like a sudden one-sided Cheval-de-frise, before all those hundreds of conjured spears launched forward, imitating a self-propelled organ gun.

When she'd 'fired' a spear, that spear would regrow and fire again, using the earth beneath them to reform. It was almost like a repeating weapon, firing again and again, using the ground as its magazine.

The spears carved swathes through the assembled Shinobi, massive rivers of red coated the battlefield as the earth spears flew through the air. Even after they'd left her area of manipulation, they continued on through momentum, only stopping when they'd lost said momentum through distance or through the sheer number of impacted Shinobi. And the aftermath was particularly gruesome.

The front of the enemy side was completely decimated for the first few dozen meters, every shinobi there was dead. Further back, many were still killed, but some saw the attack coming and evaded it. The further back, the more shinobi survived, but in one attack, a huge portion of their soldiers had died, with all of their strongest front-liners being killed by the surprise attack. That was the final straw, or rather the final kilogram worth of straws, which snapped the camels back and shattered the earth.

It was quite funny for Akari, watching all those trained Shinobi running for the mountainous terrain behind her, all because she managed to strike a huge blow to their forces. Quickly de-activating her Mangekyo Sharingan, Akari swayed slightly on her feet, that last attack was rather expensive Chakra-wise. Even if she only spent ten seconds forming and firing spears, that was almost half of her entire Chakra stores. Considering she'd also been healing and firing Katon, she was at about 25% when she glanced at her Chakra bar, having changed it from a numerical value to a blue-coloured bar.

What was worse was that there was now a distinct blurriness to her long-range vision. She hadn't lost any health, and she'd had lower Chakra before this, so Akari realized with widened eyes that she'd already managed to damage her eyes slightly. It was only in the distance, but she couldn't make out any details on the mountains the enemy Shinobi were fleeing to. As a hand came to rest on her shoulder, Akari jumped, only to relax when she saw it was her brother. As she opened her mouth to speak, she instead found herself in a rather tight embrace. "A-aniki?" She asked with a squeak.

"Don't ever do that again!" He drew away from her to glare at her, his own eyes Crimson, but with a swirling pattern, nothing like the Triple-tomoed Sharingan she'd seen before. So, her brother had the Mangekyo as well. "You can't use that ability Imouto, it'll...it's...you can't use it." He pressed his forehead against Akari's. "Using these eyes of ours...it'll take the light from them, and you won't be able to see again." Akari just hummed.

"I know. But, look at what it did." Akari gestured towards the blood-strewn field, seeing more than a few of her own allies looking at her with fear and frowning. It was to be expected, she just killed at least a hundred Shinobi indiscriminately, but still, it wasn't as though she was going to suddenly turn on them and use her abilities against her village. "If the cost for doing that, saving so many lives, is part of my vision, it's one I'd gladly pay." Akari found herself wrapped up in a hug again.

"...Imouto, you can't just...Promise me one thing." Akari turned to see her brother staring at her, his Mangekyo still-activated. "Promise me you'll not use them, not until you receive my own." Akari immediately let her jaw drop. Her brother was...offering her an Eternal Mangekyo. She could use it without risking her vision...

"No, not a fucking chance." She put her foot down immediately. Or tried to at least, she was still dangling up in her brother's arms, so she ended up hitting nothing but air. "You're not giving me your eyes just like that, I don't care what you say." Her brother sighed, ruffling her hair.

As he set her down, he looked over the battlefield with a keen eye. "Akari, I want to do this. My vision is already not that good, as I used my own abilities frivolously when I unlocked them." Suddenly a few times where her brother had been unable to read things or couldn't spot stuff made a lot more sense, he was partially blinded by his eyes. "So, please, when it's time, take my own. Don't let the light of your eyes fade because you don't want to take my own when they are already fading." Akari opened her mouth to deny him again, but he gave her a firm look, and she shut her mouth again.

"Okay...Aniki."

* * *

It was weird being in perfect darkness yet being able to see written words. Then again, her ability was pretty odd, so it could be excused.

After she and her brother left the battlefield, they spent another month up at the front-lines, with Akari still healing in the front, her brother watching over her. As promised, she refrained from using her Mangekyo, but still managed to get a nickname. '_Crimson Medic.'_ Crimson fucking Medic.

Not that she didn't like the title, it sounded cool, but the fact it didn't really give her a quantifiable bonus was annoying.

**Title****:**** Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

Seriously. No increase to how good she was, no bonus to her reputation, nothing. I mean, being introduced as the 'Crimson Medic' sounded pretty neat, but she'd much rather get like, a 50% increase to Iryo-nin proficiency, or maybe better relations with medics. Just something, but no. Akari honestly felt a little short-changed by the Game for not giving her a bonus as she expected it to.

Sighing, Akari opened her quest, looking over the end result and smiling to herself.

**Quest completed.**

**Walls come tumbling down.**

**Objectives:**

**Slay designated target without destroying the body - Completed.**

**Support front-line offensive as Iryo-nin - Completed.**

**Reward: 50,000 experience.**

**Bonus objectives:**

**Heal at least 150 Shinobi - Completed.**

**Gain a title - Completed.**

**Reward: 15,000 experience per objective. 30000 experience earned**

**Hidden Objective:**

**Loot the corpse for scroll - Completed. 5000 experience earned.**

**Unlock Mangekyo Sharingan - Completed. 15000 experience earned.**

**Unlock Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan - Completed. 30000 experience earned.**

130,000 experience, all in one big lump sum.

It was a shame she didn't get experience for healing Shinobi, but she still got all the experience for killing 132 enemy Shinobi during the battle. 64 of them were 500 experience - 32000 total, presumably Genin. 60 were 1500 experience - 90000 total, so Chunin, and the remaining eight were 4500 - 36000 total, and Jonin. That, added to her 130,000 from the quest, made up a fucking massive 288,000 experience.

"You're fiddling with your bandage again aren't you?"

Akari quickly removed her hand from the bandage wrapped around her head and grinned, even though the other occupant of the room couldn't see it. "No~ope, totally not." She then rustled her bed-sheets deliberately with a giggle. Even if she hated the fact her brother was now permanently blind, the fact he was willing to do it just so Akari would never go blind...it was just another reason why Sei was quite genuinely, the bestest most awesome big brother material in the Universe. Her mother was pretty awesome as well, but Sei just took the cookie, then gave it to her because thats how much of an awesome big brother he is, even if it was his favourite cookie.

"Imouto, you remember what they said, 'don't fiddle around with your eyes, they're still sensitive.'" He said in a chiding tone, and Akari stuck her tongue out at the darkness. "And put your tongue away." Akari drew her tongue back into her mouth with a smile. Even blind, her brother knew exactly what she was doing. It was weird, and sweet at the same time. Akari unwound the Python who was currently napping on her neck and placed the snake down gently on her sheets.

Slowly stepping out of bed after patting Monty on the head, Akari hobbled her way over towards her brother's bed, remembering the room they were in thanks to the fact she looked at it with her Sharingan before her brothers eyes were transplanted, and climbing onto his sheets. She quickly wrapped an arm around his neck and hugged him, feeling his own arm come around her back to hold her close. "You're the best big brother, you know that right?" She heard him chuckle softly, and he slowly planted a kiss on her forehead, only bumping his nose against her once.

"Only the best for my perfect little sister."

* * *

**SQUEE!**

**It's cute alright. Monty is cute. Sei is fucking...just, best big brother InMyHonestAndTotallyHumbleOpinion in the UNIVERSE. ****And, I fucking love the cookie quote, seriously. Every time I read it a massive grin comes to my lips, it's so fucking sweet. he gets a million awesome-ness cookies, because he is fucking awesome.**

**(EDIT: Since so many people are questioning it, I'll elaborate. The idea behind the eye transfer is that 'The light of one's eyes must be dimmed forever so the other can shine brightly.' Basically one must be blind for the other to see. Just doing swapsies would bean that all siblings would just swap their eyes over. There HAS to be a check and balance for it, otherwise the Uchiha would have taken over the world by simply swapping eyes.)**

**Anyways, stat screen time!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 29**

**Age: 11**

**Experience: 1759/29000**

**To Next Level: 27241**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Health Points: 2000 - (100 Base + (Vit x Str)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 100/s - Vit x Str - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 2650 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 165/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 10**

**Vitality - 10**

**Charisma - 20**

**Intelligence - 15**

**Agility - 26**

**Wisdom - 11**

**Luck - 18**

_**60 Skill Points Available**_

**Techniques**

**Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan - The eyes of a close relative. When in use, will no longer degrade visual acuity. Mangekyo Techniques will now also no longer damage eye-sight. Same abilities as regular Mangekyo Sharingan. Usage: 25CP/s.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Novice - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Novice. Usage: 50CP/s. Heal-rate - 50HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Graduate - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Graduate****. Usage: 75CP/s. Heal-rate - 75HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlock****ing improved variant.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for the reviews guys!**

**I do want to say that you shouldn't forget Akari right now is 11 years old physically, and about 21ish mentally. That's why I got worried she's getting too much power too quickly. Then again, Naruto and Sasuke weren't much older when all that crap happened to them and they became bloody God-like.**

**I just want everyone to be aware that I might get a bit out-of-control with how strong Akari is. And I might sometimes forget that people can use Jutsu, since I'll get way into writing a Taijutsu fight to care about the fact the one Akari is fighting could just use Great Breakthrough to make some distance then use something else to attack.**

_**Chapter 6**_

* * *

"Wait, what? Could you, perhaps, repeat that?"

Akari stared wide-eyed at the man who had arrived on the doorstep to her home, not quite believing she'd heard the words he said correctly. "Certainly. Hokage-sama has requested the presence of Akari Uchiha, the 'Crimson-Medic', during the Armistice Agreement talks between Konohagakure and Iwagakure in the Land of Iron." He thrust a rolled-up scroll into her hands and bade her goodbye, which she responded to with a dazed wave, noticing the flashing box in the corner of her vision and huffing.

She had literally gotten her bandages removed a single day ago. She was still getting used to the very slight difference in-depth perception having someone else's eyes did to her. It was rather minor, but it was still there. So apparently now she was meant to, what, accompany the Hokage to wherever this Armistice was going to happen? Opening the assigned quest and ignoring the scroll, Akari scanned through it.

**Quest received.**

**End of the War.**

**Objective:**

**Accompany Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, to the Land of Iron for Armistice talks between Konohagakure and Iwagakure.**

**Ensure The Hokage does not die.**

**Reward: 30,000 experience.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**?**

It was actually the first mission, or quest, she'd received that didn't have a bonus objective. Until now, every mission she'd gone on with her team had at least one bonus objective. While the quest had a Hidden Objective, there were no actions she could take to get even more experience. It was a bit strange to be honest, but Akari presumed it was probably because she could figure out hints about her tasks from the objectives.

Her previous quest, for example, hinted at her second objective by telling her to heal at least 150 Shinobi. Unrolling the scroll she received, she read it and saw it was basically telling her the same thing, so she just burnt it with a quick Katon Ichi Jutsu, lighting her finger on fire and burning the paper.

Not like she needed it.

* * *

Knocking on the ornate doors to the Hokage's office, Akari rocked back on the balls of her feet as she waited a few moments.

"Come in." She heard a voice call out, and opened the door to see the Hokage sat on his desk, a blonde-haired guy stood at ease nearby. Quickly entering the room, Akari pushed the door closed and approached, stopping a respectable distance away and bowing at the Hokage. "Please, let's not have any of that. Rise, Akari Uchiha." Akari raised her head to look at the Hokage, quickly rising from her bow and grinning at the man when he smiled at her.

"Good morning Hokage-sama. So, I got the scroll for the mission. If I may...-" She trailed off, waiting for the man to nod before she continued. "-why do you want me for this mission? As far as I'm aware I'm still a Genin, surely you could get Jiraiya-sama or even Orochimaru-sama to accompany you for this task? Besides, I got off my bed-rest a literal day ago, and am probably an inferior choice to other options." The blonde-haired man in the room snorted when Akari mentioned Jiraiya, and she raised an eyebrow at him after she was done.

"I don't think anyone could convince Ero-sensei away from his research anymore." He said with a chuckle.

"...Right. Might I ask, and excuse me if this seems obvious, but who are you exactly?" The man actually looked a little startled that she didn't recognize him, but his face formed into mock hurt. "Gah, you wound me Crimson Medic! I made it a point to find out about you, only for my own exploits to go unknown, the horror!" Akari just giggled slightly. "And, for your information, I'm Minato Namikaze, I suppose I'll be your partner for this mission."

Akari made an 'oh' sound as she stuck her hand out. "I didn't realize anyone else was coming, that's why I was so confused. So, if Minato-san is coming along as well, are we getting more Shinobi for an escort?" She said as she turned back to the Hokage.

"No, it'll just be us three. As we are still at war until the Armistice is signed, I cannot afford to pull any more Shinobi from the front-lines for an escort. The reason the two of you are coming is that you have both gained reputations for yourselves, and it will be a solid show of strength when we meet with the Tsuchikage, as he will likely bring his Jinchuriki to the meeting. As each party are allowed two guards to stand in, they will very likely be stood behind him during this event. As such, you two will be stood behind me as well."

Akari nodded along to the mans explanation. "Right, that all sounds normal enough. I still don't get why you'd rather I show up rather than ordering Jiraiya to accompany you, as surely a Sannin would be more feared than a relative newcomer to the scene, but that doesn't matter." The Hokage looked a bit surprised at something. Akari put a hand to her hip as she tilted her head. "What?"

"Oh nothing, I just forget you are noted to be extremely mature for your age." Oh, right. Akari was only twelve in body, even though in spirit she was about twenty-two. With a shrug, Akari just smiled.

"Guess I was forced to grow up fast."

* * *

The forests of Hi no Kuni quickly gave way to the snow-covered Tetsu no Kuni, the Land of Iron.

Apparently, from what Akari pieced together through conversations with Minato, it was where the Samurai made their home. Shinobi would typically use the land as a neutral ground for their important meetings, which was why the Armistice was being held there. The meeting was to be hosted by an honoured Samurai called Mifune, who was apparently set to become the next General of the Land of Iron, the Samurai equivalent to a Kage.

"So, how are the Iwa delegation going to get to the Land of Iron?" She asked Minato as they hopped from tree to tree. During her studies, she'd memorized a map of the Elemental Nations using her Sharingan, and while the Land of Fire bordered the Land of Iron, the Land of Earth was blocked by the Land of Waterfalls, which was the only land route for people from Iwagakure to get to their meeting point.

"We expect they'll use a boat. They can sail across Aisu Bay, dock on the west coast of the Peninsula of Iron, then travel south and meet us at the designated point. To be honest, they actually haven't got much further to travel than we do. Despite the fact they are blocked by land, the sea route means they can avoid the mountains that dot the land borders of the country, and sail straight onto the Peninsula, probably embarking at a town near the border between Waterfall and Earth, disembarking on the other side of Waterfall." Minato shrugged, the action rather amusing to Akari as he was in mid-air when he did so.

Akari nodded and focused on making sure she didn't slip on the snow-covered branches, but very quickly Hiruzen called for the trio to go to ground. "We shall continue on the ground from this point on. It is heavily frowned upon for Shinobi to use their abilities within this land, and it would put undue political pressure on Konoha if we were caught openly displaying our abilities by tree-flitting." Akari tilted her head, but agreed all the same.

She'd probably be a little uncomfortable as well if she were a Samurai and saw Shinobi zipping past. Even if she was now used to the sight of Shinobi jumping from tree to tree, Samurai probably weren't as open to the idea. "So, where are we actually meeting this delegation?" She asked Minato as they walked down the long path.

"We're going to the Three Wolves mountains, there are halls specifically set aside for this kinda thing." Minato informed her helpfully. "The Samurai get requested often enough, and paid well enough, that setting aside specific places to handle Shinobi disputes is worth it for them." Akari nodded, then let a grin slip on her lips.

"So, how do you know all this stuff? You a living encyclopedia or somethin'?" She said, nudging the older man with an elbow.

Shaking his head, he waved towards the Hokage. "Nah, the old man wants me learning all this stuff for the future. That way I stop pestering him when I don't know stuff."

"Wait, hang on, something I just realized. You referred to Jiraiya-sama as Ero-sensei, does that mean that technically Hokage-sama is the sensei of your sensei, so your Grand-sensei?" She said with a snicker, and was joined by a chuckle from the Kage, while Minato just looked put-out.

"That reminds me, how is Kushina?" A bright smile came to his face when Hiruzen mentioned that, and Akari tilted her head. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but Akari couldn't remember why that was at all.

"She's doing great. Still nags me for ramen every time I-"

"OH I REMEMBER NOW!" Akari quickly burst out, covering her mouth and blushing when she realized just how loud she was. The two she was travelling with eyed her curiously, and she sighed. "I remember why Kushina sounded familiar to me. I remember meeting her like...oh god, three years ago? Red-hair, annoying, calls Kunoichi-in-training cute? Wait...hang on a fucking minute..." Akari stared at Minato closely, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You were Kushina's...I don't even know, boyfriend?"

The man did a double-take, trying to remember something most likely, before he burst out laughing. "Th-that was you?! Ahahaha! K-kushina wouldn't keep quiet about the 'Adorable little Kunoichi' she met when she was out getting Ramen. Oh, I need to re-introduce you two." Akari quickly folded her arms up, twisting away from the man.

"Not a chance. 'Adorable little kunoichi' my left kidney! Bet she didn't even think about the fact I might have actually wanted to be a serious Kunoichi, and that hurt my self-esteem. Gah, she could have scarred me for life. Of course, I'm too awesome for that!" She announced, sticking a thumbs up and grinning, prompting the three of them to start laughing.

If anyone saw the trio walking down the road, they would never have assumed they were three of the most powerful Shinobi in Konoha, with the way they were bantering and laughing. It looked less like a serious delegation about to discuss an armistice and more like two old friends and a child of one of theirs merely going for a journey. Of course, as their destination loomed, their jovialty was placed back away, replaced with serious looks and a much firmer stride.

Well, for two of them anyway. Akari still shamelessly gawked at the giant mountains that they were approaching. Or rather, the giant jaws of ice and snow that hung above them, evidently where they got the name 'The Three Wolves mountains'. It looked like three giant wolves had their jaws about to clamp down, one on each mountain. Why anyone would willingly live near such a dangerous-looking formation Akari didn't know, but evidently it was supported enough to not just collapse, as there was a lot of civilization on the valley between the three mountains.

As they approached, Akari spotted a large stone wall running along the gap between two of the 'jaws', a colossal gate stood firmly in the centre of the wall. Along the battlements which lined the large structure she could see men and women in red armour walking to and fro, presumably the Samurai who acted as the military for the Land of Iron.

What truly drew the eye though were the interspersed cast-iron dragon heads lining the wall, with flames dribbling from their open mouths. Presumably some kind of defence mechanism, but it looked absolutely awesome, and Akari made no attempt to hide her interest as she kept her gaze firmly rooted on the closest one. She flipped her Sharingan on for a moment and then off again, just enough to permanently remember the sight in crystal-clear clarity, it was that interesting for the girl.

Between each of the heads were machicolations of stone, another rather genius defence mechanism, as any Shinobi trying to climb the walls would be vulnerable to those holes still. Akari wasn't sure whether or not she'd even see them since while Konoha's walls were absurdly tall, there weren't any actual defensive constructions like embrasures or machicolations. Presumably, because the Shinobi manning the wall felt confident they could just fire Jutsu down at any opponents, but it was still silly to not have anything defending the top.

"Hey, Hokage-sama?" The man turned and looked at Akari, and she pointed at the wall. "Why doesn't Konoha's walls have defences like that?"

"How do you know that we don't?" He returned, and Akari frowned. The walls were pretty plain, and she'd left and re-entered the village enough in her C-rank missions to see them plenty. The more she thought about it, the more it confused her, until she concluded either the man also didn't know, the wall did have defences but they were hidden, or he was just embarrassed that the Samurai had cooler walls than Konoha.

Probably the second one in Akari's opinion. It seemed like far too large of a point to just ignore.

* * *

"It was your Shinobi being caught during a mission that prompted the whole war to begin with!"

Akari blocked her ears with her fingers as she tried to tune out the loud back and forth between the short and angry man who was introduced as Onoki the Fence-Sitter. According to Minato, he was known as the Fence-Sitter because he always waited until it was clear who was going to win an argument before he chose a side. This was contrary to how he apparently saw himself, being even and fair to both sides of an argument, and a source of endless amusement for Akari, who had to stifle her amusement whenever he or his bodyguards looked her way.

More than once she caught Onoki glaring at her, so evidently despite her attempts to hide it, he'd seen her and the fact she was amused by something, probably putting two and two together. Not that it mattered. The man clearly knew his village couldn't sustain the war, considering on one flank they had the Yellow Flash, and on the other they had the Crimson Medic.

With Konoha able to send out the Sannin for a hammer-blow at any point, it seemed Iwa wanted to cut their losses and ditch the war, but not without taking every inch Konoha would give them. "And whose Shinobi were in our lands when said men were caught? If you will recall, your own troops were within Kusagakure when they were caught, a country that the Land of Earth has no formal alliance nor open borders with. On the contrary, the Land of Fire do have open borders with the Land of Grass." The Hokage retorted, taking a moment to puff his pipe as the Tsuchikage fumed.

It was pretty fun watching the Hokage verbally smackdown every single point the Fence-Sitter made easily and with solid reasoning and logic backing him up. Even the man's bodyguards were starting to look exasperated with the man's attempts at getting war compensation from Konoha. "Onoki-dono, allow me to be frank. Your country is to blame for this war for your militaristic actions and attempts to subvert an ally of Konohagakure and attack our lands. You have not seeked to limit the damage caused to Konoha or Kusagakure lands during your battles, a far cry from our own. If I recall, the only true instance of overwhelming terrain damage was during the battle involving Akari-chan here." He waved a hand at Akari, startling her.

"Eh?" Was all she said, having missed most of the conversation. Quickly her brain caught up with her and she frowned as she stepped forward. "Well, if you want I can go back and fix that, I'd guess the problem is my Jutsu made a giant sub-terranean cavern from excavating earth and stone to use as projectiles?" She looked at the Hokage, ignoring Onoki, and getting a nod.

"Yes, the earth there is now rather unstable thanks to the large space opened beneath the ground. So you can fill this cavern back in?" Akari nodded, smirking.

"As long as I'm within 50 meters of the whole thing, yeah, I can fill it in quite easily. If you'd allow me into your borders that is, Tsuchikage-sama." She smiled at the fuming Kage. She wanted to add a taunt, but she knew that aggravating the man was probably not a smart idea. Best to leave that to the expert statesman that is the Third Hokage. Quickly stepping back into the spot she'd taken up before, leaning her back against a pillar, Akari pointedly ignored the almost silent chuckling coming from beside her.

The meeting went on for hours, and by the time the Samurai called for a recess, stating the Armistice talks would continue the following day, Akari was ready to just collapse down onto a sofa and go for a nap. Minato, bless his heart, gave Akari his arm for support, since she was rather tired from standing in place so long with nothing to do. "I seriously want to know how the fuck he does that..." She said as she stared at the back of the Hokage, talking loud enough for the man to hear her.

"A lifetime of experience Akari-chan." He replied easily, and Akari felt the arm she was supported by shifting slightly as Minato stifled laughter.

Tugging her arm from his grasp, Akari folded them over each other. "Honestly, dealing with...men like that, for I don't even know how long, and not losing your temper once? That sounds like hell, seriously." Minato gave her a look when she nodded at her own announcement. "What? It's true. That guy was an asshole. Or a petulant child, refusing to take even a modicum of the blame for the war and expecting Konoha to pay for the bill. Fucking fence-sitter, more like Dine-and-Dasher."

The loud and surprised guffaw from the Hokage made Akari smile widely, and Minato joined him in laughing at the name. "You know I'm telling Kushina that new nickname when I get back." Akari just shrugged at Minato. "Dine-and-Dasher indeed."

"Minato-kun, Akari-chan, let's never call him that. He thinks Fence-Sitter is a good title, which is the only reason people get away with calling him that. There's no good way to frame a Dine-and-Dasher, so it can only be taken as an insult." The Hokage gave them both pointed look with a stern face before it softened. "In private, call him whatever you like though. My personal favourites are those that target his nose, it looks a lot like a fake doesn't it?" Akari thought about it for a moment before shrugging.

"I dunno, it looks like a clown nose to me. I wonder if it'd make a noise when I honked it. Aside from Onoki yelling that is." Akari snickered lightly. "Is that even natural?"

Hiruzen nodded sagely. "Yes, I believe so. It would certainly be amusing to think he made his nose how it is and actually liked how it made him look, I can't fathom why he would do such a thing though." The old man took a puff of his pipe as he thought, leaving Akari to look back the way they came.

"So how long do you reckon this whole thing will go on Hokage-sama?" Akari said as she rubbed an eye with her fingers. "My eyes still aren't quite back to normal, so I'd like to get some time off to get back up to scratch after all." Minato gave her a curious look, but Hiruszen just nodded, having been told exactly what the situation was surrounding Akari's disappearance from the front lines.

Officially it was because she'd become too exhausted, trying to push too far with a body too weak to support her, but the truth was that she had to recover from her operation. "That'll be acceptable Akari-chan. Will one week of rest be sufficient before placing you back on active rosters?" Akari nodded, before a stray thought crossed her mind.

"By the way Hokage-sama, I just remembered something." The man raised an eyebrow. "You never actually told me why I'm here. I mean, I get it, I have a reputation, but so does Orochimaru-sama. He's also probably far stronger than I am, so...why me?" The man smiled as he reached over to ruffle her hair, making her pout and try to pat it back into shape.

"Two reasons Akari-chan. The first was your reputation as the Crimson Medic. Even if I were to be injured during this Armistice somehow, you would undoubtedly be able to heal me. Don't try to be humble,-" He quickly added as Akari opened her mouth to protest. "-you personally healed at least two hundred of our Shinobi, many of whom were in critical condition. I have faith in your abilities. The other reason I shall disclose when we reach Konoha again. And yes, that does mean you'll have to come to my office before you head home for your week of rest."

Akari just closed her mouth and nodded.

* * *

Watching the Hokage and Tsuchikage sign the Armistice agreement, followed by Mifune signing it as an officiator, then Akari, Minato, and the two Jinchuriki, who were apparently Roshi-san and Han-san, all signing it as witnesses, was a pretty monumental moment for Akari. Before then, the most important thing she'd ever signed was a requisition form. When that was done, the trio quickly left the Land of Iron and returned to Konoha, the journey uneventful but tiring.

* * *

Akari stretched her arms out upwards as they entered the Hokage's office, yawning. "Well, that was definitely a monumental experience. So uh, why did you want me here Hokage-sama?" The man merely looked at Minato, who gave him a thumbs up.

"Akari-chan, I mentioned I would tell you the second reason for your coming with us on this Armistice mission. Suffice to say, Minato and myself have been observing you, and despite your childish wonder of the world, you are still very mature when necessary. Coupled with the loss of your Jonin-sensei and team, I have decided to promote you to Tokubetsu Jonin. Do you accept?" Akari let her jaw drop. Tokubetsu Jonin. As in, one level below Jonin, which was only outclassed by ANBU or the Hokage himself.

That was...great. Tokubetsu Jonin didn't have to take Genin teams, which would be fucking older than she was. They were still expected to be available if called upon to teach, at the Academy for example, but they were never directly given a team to look after. She would receive high-level missions which would help her experience earning immensely, and she'd be granted a lot more autonomy.

Sure, a Chunin also had a lot of Autonomy, but a Tokubetsu Jonin could leave the village entirely if they so wished, as long as they gave a good reason for it, alongside an estimated duration for absence. It sounded bloody perfect. Too perfect. "Excuse my suspicion Hokage-sama, but this sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?" The man smiled at her, and Akari knew there was something coming.

"The 'catch', Akari-chan, is that you will be a bodyguard to Minato-kun's wife, Kushina Uzumaki, for your first assignment." Ahh, there it was.

Akari resisted the urge to just say fuck it and elope to Iwa with Monty and her brother, but instead she settling for a low glower. "One condition." The Kage raised his eyebrow at her input. "I get to refuse if she tries something stupid like dressing me up or making me do something stupid. It's not happening, I don't care what she or anyone says." She folded her arms for emphasis. "I already had to deal with the embarrassment of being called a, and I fucking quote, 'adorable little Kunoichi', literally in front of my own brother, I'm not letting her embarrass me just because she wants to."

Stifling a laugh, the old Hokage nodded at Akari. "That sounds reasonable. However, I can't limit what she might say, so she may perhaps make mention of you as such a thing. In that happening, I trust you will simply deal with it in a calm and mature manner." Akari nodded, still scowling slightly at being essentially forced to look after the woman who called her adorable.

"Well Hokage-sama, if you don't need me for anything else, may I begin my one-week rest?" The man waved her out of the office alongside Minato, and she began to make her way to the door. Akari suddenly realized something incredibly amusing as she was about to leave, and before she left the office, turned to look at the Hokage again. "By the way, has anybody ever managed to be promoted from Genin without taking a single D-rank mission?"

Thinking for a moment as he puffed his pipe, Hiruzen shook his head, smirking. "No, I don't believe there has. Even Kakashi had D-rank missions under his best before he was promoted to Chunin. Isn't that right Minato?" The blonde-haired man chuckled softly as he nodded. "So, I do believe you are perhaps the first. I'd say congratulations are in order, but something like that shouldn't really be praised. Forcing you into such gruesome work without the easing into it that D-rank missions act as shouldn't be encouraged. Now, you look like you want to just fall over and sleep, so I shall instead simply say congratulations on your promotion, and I have high hopes that you will continue to uphold the Will of Fire."

Akari bowed once before leaving the office and heading for home, opening her quests, before quickly focusing on the flashing quest-icon, removing the notification of completion for her last quest as the wall of text appeared before her eyes.

**Quest completed**

**End of the War.**

**Objective:**

**Accompany Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, to the Land of Iron for Armistice talks between Konohagakure and Iwagakure - Completed.**

**Ensure The Hokage does not die - Completed.**

**Reward: 30,000 experience.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**Insult Onoki the Fence-Sitter to his face and get away with it - Incomplete.**

Spotting the already assigned quest, Akari let a frown slip onto her lips as she scanned the quest. More specifically, her bonus objective.

**Quest received**

**Protection Duties.**

**Objective:**

**Protect Kushina Uzumaki for undisclosed length of time.**

**Reward: Extra title slot. Experience calculated on completion.**

**Bonus Objective:**

**Avoid being treated like a doll by Kushina on first meeting.**

**Reward: Chakra-conduction Jutsu scroll, 1000 experience.**

"...Fuck you Game."

* * *

**Soo, Tokubetsu Jonin huh?**

**I think that rank fits perfectly, and Kakashi becoming a full-fledged Jonin at 12 is stupid. Jonin receive teams, and at that age, he is nowhere near ready for leadership, especially not of a fresh Genin team.**

**Tokubetsu Jonin can still receive teams according to the fandom wiki, but there's no evidence, so I've chosen to ignore that. Tokubetsu Jonin excel in specific areas, whereas full-fledged Jonin are meant to be rounded off as good in all areas necessary. Akari is definitely eligible to be a full-fledged Jonin considering her rapidly-expanding Chakra reserves, her skill with Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and more specifically as an Iryo-nin, but as she is still only 11 years old, she is instead becoming a Tokubetsu Jonin until she's a bit older and more mature.**

**Now, on with the status screen! I'm adding Endurance to her list in the place of Charisma, and swapping out how her health is measured to use that instead. Thing is, Charisma isn't doing anything. Luck is going to have a bit of an effect, but Charisma just...I dunno, it seemed like nothing is going to use it. Plus, having strength measure her health is a bit odd.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 30**

**Age: 11**

**Experience: 2759/30000**

**To Next Level: 27241**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Health Points: 6000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 4000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 300/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 30**

**Vitality - 25**

**Endurance - 20**

**Intelligence - 20**

**Agility - 40**

**Wisdom - 15**

**Luck - 25**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey, I'm curious. So, Akari got her Mangekyo, then used her left eye ability to massacre over a hundred Shinobi. Then her eyes were replaced with Sei's eyes. Yet, rather than her own abilities being replaced with his, instead she retains her own and doesn't even gain his, despite her eyes now having the pattern of both Mangekyo.**

**So, what gives? Seems a bit weird to me, maybe the thought of giving Sasuke Itachi's Tsukuyomi was decided as being too much power or something? Who knows to be honest. I'm just grateful I don't have to make 4 Mangekyo abilities.**

**Also, thank you for the idea Durrty Paramour, I'd respond directly but because the review is a guest one I kinda can't. I won't be following that suggestion exactly, but what you said gave me inspiration for a few future plot threads.**

_**Chapter 7**_

* * *

"Aww, Akari-chan, come here!"

Akari zipped away using her Shunshin again, landing beside a wall and quickly walking up the wall, evading Kushina's attempts to catch her until she was out of reach. "I refuse." She said bluntly, stepping onto the ceiling and sitting down cross-legged, tucking her ponytail into the back of her mesh shirt and crossing her arms. "I'm not some dress-up doll you can play with." The red-haired woman pouted at Akari for a moment, but she ignored her in favour of pulling a scroll from her outfit and reading it.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Huffing, Akari tipped her scroll slightly to look at Kushina with a light glare.

"What? Like I said, not a doll. I'm meant to be here to protect you, so that's what I'm doing. Being put in a fucking ridiculous costume was not a part of the mission description." The woman just gave her a deadpan look, but Akari ignored her in favour of continuing to read. She could have used her Sharingan to just memorize the contents, but that wasn't as enjoyable as reading through the entire thing slowly and enjoying it all.

With a whine, the red-haired Uzumaki turned to the other occupant of the room, folding her arms under her chest only to whip one out and point at Akari. "Minato, tell her!" The blonde just shrugged.

"Can't. She specified she would only take the mission on the condition that she could refuse orders that would involve either making her 'do something stupid' in general, or more specifically making her dress-up. Seems she already had you all figured out." The red-head moaned as she collapsed onto the sofa beside her husband. That was interesting to find out, Akari didn't actually realize the pair were married. She supposed they made a cute couple, though she would eternally prefer Minato for the simple fact that he wasn't trying to make her try on quite frankly ridiculous clothing.

"I only wanted her to try a few!" She threw her arms up for emphasis, and Minato opened his mouth to retort, but Akari beat him to it by Shunshin'ing into the room Kushina had spent an hour in, coming out again just as quickly with at least a dozen outfits hung on racks and dumping them beside Kushina. "They're...all mine?" Akari just sat back down on the ceiling.

"Right, because you'd fit in any of these." She retorted, sneering at the maid outfit in particular. It seemed even in this world people had weird ideas for what cute was. A fucking maid was not 'cute'. Neko-ears were cute, maids were just...weird. "Please, Kushina-san, just give up. I'm not letting you put a single one of those anywhere near me, and I'll use a damn Katon Jutsu to force my way out if I have to." Akari's voice was normal, but her eyes were dead serious.

Little did the pair know, something awesome was riding on this. If she could survive just one day without Kushina managing to dress her up, she'd succeed her bonus objective. Akari had spent some of her week-long rest looking up what Chakra conduction could do, and she was, quite frankly, hooked. Being able to form Chakra either around a weapon, or just on her hands themselves, was an incredible thing, especially when coupled with a nature transformation like Fire or Earth. Being able to coat herself in a thin sheet of Flames, or encase herself within solid earth to avoid an attack, that sounded pretty incredible.

On the other hand, she could channel it into just her hands and weapons to boost her attack power. While she didn't yet know her Elemental Affinity, all five had interesting implications. Wind and Water would sharpen the attack, Earth would simply put a lot more weight behind each swing, Fire would of course light the target on Fire, and Lightning would electrify. They could also be used to create shrouds around herself, but that was a more advanced technique, probably something her abilities wouldn't allow at first.

Cricking her shoulder, Akari tuned out the conversation the two were having beneath her, yawning and dropping back to the floor. She opened her satchel which was always firmly strapped to her back and blindly manipulated her inventory, pulling a torpedo-bap roll from it before closing the menu and retrieving her hand. Ever since she realized she could use her inventory while blind, she had started using to carry a lot of things. Of course, if anyone questioned her satchel of endless depths, she could just blame Fuinjutsu, and say that only she could see the seals.

Unwrapping the delicious and still toasty-hot food from its wrappings, Akari saw Kushina staring at her with a twinkle in her eyes. "What?" She said, drawing her mouth away from the roll.

"What is that Akari-chan?" She said, drolling slightly.

"Uhh, a torpedo bap? Y'know, a long and thick roll? Unless you want to know what's in it?" The woman nodded emphatically. "Well, this one is my personal favourite, the breakfast torpedo. There's Bacon, Sausage, Egg, Tomato and some Barbecue sauce drizzled into it. Made it myself actually." Akari yelped and Shunshin'd backwards again when Kushina made to grab her food, growling at her. "Mine. Make your own!"

"But Akari-chaaan, I don't know how!" Akari rolled her eyes at the woman, who was trying and failing to give her puppy-dog eyes. Reaching into her satchel again, Akari ignored Kushina and Minato's looks and quickly dug a second roll from her inventory out of about a dozen. They didn't cool down or go bad, so Akari built up a bit of a surplus when she got bored during her week off. But it was quite useful for situations like she'd just encountered.

Tossing the wrapped roll to Kushina, she watched as the woman unwrapped it as though she hadn't seen food in a month and started devouring it. Smiling at Minato and waving a hand at her satchel, the blonde just shook his head and patted his stomach. Looking towards the red-head again, Akari's jaw dropped, as she saw Kushina had already devoured the entire thing and was licking her fingers. Akari had managed literally two bites at this point, yet the woman had eaten the whole thing like it was a biscuit. "I'm not giving you another."

The woman suddenly frowned deeply and collapsed dramatically back onto Minato's lap, a hand to her forehead. "Gah, there's a war in heaven! The food of the Gods has been challenged! We must rectify this!" She stared at Minato, who after a moment of resistance simply slumped his shoulders. "Time for Ramen!" Akari blinked a few times as the woman charged out of the apartment and down the single flight of steps.

Listening to her run, she looked at Minato, who simply had a tired look on his face. "You have...no idea what you've begun. Kushina considers Ramen to be like ambrosia, the best possible food in existence. To challenge that existence..." He shook his head. "You should go after her, I need to go and speak with Hokage-sama about some private matters anyway."

With a sloppy salute, Akari left the apartment in a swirl of leaves, just in time to watch Kushina crash headlong into a stool outside a stand that read 'Ichiraku's' "Teyuki! Give me...the big one." Akari could have heard a pin drop as she arrived at the stand. The man behind the counter snapped his gaze to Akari and scrutinized her for a second before narrowing his eyes and disappearing into the back room.

Immediately, a cacophony of sounds came from the room. Metal banging together, flames bursting out, and...it even sounded like a drill whirring with nails being hammered in was audible through the door, before the man came out holding an honest-to-god glowing bowl of noodles, settling it down reverently in front of Kushina and backing away as though the glow of these noodles would fade if he remained close-by.

Muttering Kai, Akari sighed as the illusion disappeared. Kushina was just eating a normal bowl of Ramen, nothing ridiculous was going on. As Kushina slowly raised the chopsticks to her lips and took her first bite, a tear slipped from her eyes, before she began bawling loudly as she ate. Blinking, Akari watched her devour the bowl almost as fast as she ate the torpedo earlier. When it was finished, the red-head folded her arms and put her forehead atop them, still crying.

Not sure if she should approach or not, Akari decided to simply let the woman cry out whatever existential crisis she was going through. "It's ruined..." She said between sobs, the man behind the counter laying a consoling hand on her shoulder and looking to Akari with a gaze as though to say 'Congratulations'.

Akari didn't know why she would be congratulated by this, but that was what her Charisma skill was telling her in this situation. With a mutter, she approached Kushina, only to be grabbed by her shirt and pulled in front of the teary-eyed woman. "Give me another." She demanded, and Akari quickly reached into her satchel for food, essentially bribing the woman with the bap.

As soon as she was no longer being held, Akari departed a good distance away and simply watched Kushina eat the bap from a nearby rooftop, tears still in her eyes. It was weird. Akari loved those 'breakfast torpedoes', but she never thought someone would get so...emotional over them. With a shrug, Akari flickered her gaze up to the corner of her vision, noting the time and smiling.

It was almost the end of the day.

* * *

Hands in her pockets, Akari all but skipped her way back to the Uchiha district.

The day was done, and the bonus mission had now been regarded as completed according to her quest log. A lovely chakra-conduction scroll now awaited her upon the completion of the quest. Even if tomorrow Kushina found some way to force her into one of those outfits, that scroll was still delectably secure. It was rather irritating that she had to wait until an 'undisclosed length of time' passed for her to finish the quest and get that scroll, but she was patient enough, she could wait.

"I'm home!" She chirped as she opened to door to her home, quickly removing her boots and placing them in the shoe-rack alongside all the sandals.

It was pretty weird how many people wore those ridiculous open-toed sandals rather than something awesome like steel toe-capped boots. Surely having that metal at the end would be absurdly beneficial, since being kicked by a boot like that was most decidedly not a pleasant experience. Sure, being kicked normally wasn't a nice thing, but the steel would be extra bad. "Welcome back." Her brother called from the living room.

There was a big stink kicked up, according to her mother at least, since her brother was a Chunin and slated for promotion to Jonin after the war. Going blind suddenly threw a wrench into that plan and deprived Konoha of a valuable asset. So, to make up for it, he took up a role in the Academy teaching the next generation. It was honestly a pretty fair use of his skills, and as such nobody could really fuss, especially with the war ending so soon after his blindness.

Of course, a few tried to make such a fuss, some demanding to know the exact circumstance behind his sudden blindness and Akari's disappearance at the same time. With a very select few being in the know about the operation, the ones who didn't know were the ones raising a fuss. But, fortunately enough, since the Hokage himself had backed the entire thing those voices were quickly put down.

As Akari approached the living room, she spotted a white mass nestled along the edge of the sofa Sei was sat on, and quickly approached, sticking her hand out and letting Monty climb up her arm. "I'm bringing you along tomorrow, guarding Kushina-san was so boring, and she kept trying to make me wear stupid stuff." Flopping bonelessly onto another chair, Akari brought her other arm around and spaced them apart, letting Monty have an impromptu jungle-gym to slither across. "So, how's teaching Academy Students going for you?"

Her brother waved a hand in her direction. "Thanks for reminding me. Tomorrow, do you reckon you can come by the Academy and show a few students your Mystical Palm technique? I made mention that my sister was the Crimson Medic in the staff-room and a few of the teachers got the idea that showing the students what Iryo-nin can do would be a great start in convincing more of them to become Iryo-nin rather than normal Shinobi." Akari shrugged, making her top rustle, then winced when she heard her brother chuckle.

"Sorry Aniki, kinda forget you can't see me any more. I mean, maybe? I'd have to convince Kushina-san to come since I do have to guard her until my day off, which coincidentally is the weekend, so I can't come to the Academy on my day off considering that's when it's closed. Plus, don't forget I told you I'm going to see Terumasa about my custom-orders." Her brother let a sheepish look onto his face when she mentioned that. "You seriously forgot that?"

Rubbing the back of his head, her brother shrugged. "I guess? I don't know how I forgot, you talk about that visit every chance you get!" Akari adopted a sheepish look of her own. While it was true she talked a lot about the fact she was finally able to retrieve her custom order of proper fighting knives from a respected blacksmith, that was only because they were going to be awesome.

Admittedly, drawing out the specifications for the weapons she wanted was a bit of a nightmare, but well worth it.

* * *

"Ahh, Akari-san, welcome back!"

Stepping into the shop and wiping her boots down quickly on the entrance mat, Akari gave a smile to the brown-haired man stood behind the counter. Terumasa really didn't look like a typical blacksmith, at least not one her old world would stereotype them as. He had firm but not bulging muscles, and he wasn't a heavy-set or overly tall guy, he looked pretty average. "Hey there Terumasa-san, are my orders done yet?"

He nodded and turned away, giving Akari a moment to look round the shop as he left for the back-room. There were weapons on weapons lining the racks, counters, shelves and even some straight-up left on top of other weapons. Granted, those were the ones like Kunai, Tanto and more common weapons, but it was still a bit of a mess to look at, and her neatness was screaming at her to organize the place.

Throwing a glance at the door Terumasa had left through, Akari saw no sign of the blacksmith. Biting her lip, Akari looked between the door and the pile of Kunai before sighing and reaching for one. Then another. Then three more. A dozen. Akari began slowly organizing the Kunai out into neat rows on the table they were on, stacking them up into a vaguely pyramid-like shape, but only three layers tall before she ran out of Kunai.

Placing the final Kunai on the stack and stepping back to admire her handiwork, Akari heard a humming sound from the door and turned to see Terumasa come back through with a long strip of fabric wrapped up in his arms. Placing it down on his counter, he unrolled the cloth and flipped it open to reveal a dozen daggers. Akari wasn't able to decide what kind she even wanted, so in the end, settled for 6 pairs of daggers.

There was a pair of BC-41 daggers, which actually existed in the world as Trench Knives, two Karambit knives with the familiar rings on their ends, a pair of Warrior knives which had a serrated back edge and a hefty curve, a pair of Opinel knives which were far more concealable even without her arm-warmer seals, then a set of Stilettos for getting past armour, not that Akari had encountered anybody wearing serious armour yet.

But, the final, and finest of the weapons made were the Bowie Knives. These were slightly stretching the limit of what could actually be called a knife, but it was still a knife, and so she wanted them. Just looking at them, Akari knew these were going to be her primary weapon. The others would all had good uses, like the Opinel knives looking like nothing but a bit of wood until it was unfolded, or using the Stilettos to deal with heavy armour. But, nothing would see quite as much use as the pair of finely-crafted Bowie knives in front of her.

Lifting one up, Akari inspected the weapon closely. The blade was a length and a half of the handle, the metal for the guard and blade being black, while the wood for the handle was wrapped in thin vellum which would let Akari write seals on the weapons if she wished. But, the reason all the weapons, and the Bowie Knives especially, were so expensive was the fact that the metal, down to the fuller and guard, was chakra-conductive, as were the vellum and wood.

The chakra-conductive metal was hard to come by, and for good reason. It had to be worked on with neutral Chakra being poured into the metal the entire time, which was exceptionally difficult to do. The Blacksmith had to either get a Shinobi with good Chakra reserves to basically sit there the whole time focusing on the metal as it was forged, or do it himself if he was exceptionally skilled and endowed with reserves. If the Chakra stream cut off during the process, there was a brief window that it could be reconnected to, but if the metal wasn't re-supplied within that window it would become normal unconducive metal, and all that effort would be wasted.

It could also be done by those without a neutral Chakra, either the receiver of the metal or their close family, but it meant nobody else would be able to conduct Chakra into the weapon without heavy resistance and an immense amount of wasted Chakra. Flipping the blade over, Akari held the bowie knife in a reverse grip, tipping it back and forth to feel for the balance, the weight, all the little things about the blade which made it unique.

Seemingly satisfied, Akari then twirled the blade end over end around her fingers, transitioning to holding it between her fingers as she slide it back down gently beside its partner on the cloth, and grinning at the blacksmith. "They're perfect." She breathed, looking over the assorted knives. Slipping a hand into her satchel, she dug out the required Ryo, which she had already set aside in a packet, and dropping it on the counter.

The odd part about her inventory was that certain items like Ryo, keys, and things of that nature were filtered into a sort of sub-inventory and weren't using one of her inventory slots. However, if she specifically placed the Ryo into an object, it would retain its own space in her inventory. It was the same with keys, which was mildly annoying since she had a few and would have liked to use a key-ring, but she just made do without it.

Taking the packet of Ryo, the man flipped it open and flicked through the notes. In there were various separately-bound notes of Ryo. the largest was for the two Bowie knives at 15,000. Then, it dipped down heavily all the way to 2200 for the BC-41's, followed by an even 3k for the Karambit knives. Surprisingly, the Warrior knives, because of the serration and the curve, came up to a hint over 4000 Ryo. The Opinels came in with a meagre 2000 to balance that, finally ending with the Stilettos, which due to their thin size were also only 2000, totting up to a pretty decent 28200 Ryo. Of course, they were all actually slightly below those numbers in cost, but Akari rounded them up just as a way to thank the man other than a tip.

Normally Akari would just straight-up give him a tip, but she learned rather early on that tips weren't something people did in Konoha. Some things were a little more expensive compared to what she would expect after figuring out the exchange rate between her old currency and the Ryo people in the Elemental Nations used, and Akari figured it was probably because of this extra cost that tips weren't seen, as you were already paying enough to cover the product and/or the services rendered. The first time she tried to tip someone for great service, she spent a good few minutes trying to weasel out of the ensuing confusion by pretending it was something she read about in a book and thought it was polite.

She still had to sometimes catch herself from reaching for money in cafes after a good meal. What really baffled Akari was just how much money her missions made.

The average pay for a C-rank mission was between 30,000 and 100,000 Ryo, so it was averaged out at about 45k/50k for a typical mission. With a conversion rate of about 10 Ryo to one GBP, that was like £3000 just for the lowest dregs of a C-rank mission. Considering the team had already done more than a dozen mid-to-low C-rank missions, they'd gotten a decent payout.

Taking the mission pay, then splitting it into three (Their teacher used to get paid just from taking the team out, so he didn't get a cut) meant Akari had about 180,000 Ryo, or £18,000 just kicking around in her inventory. Since she was the sole survivor of the final mission, and it was bumped up to a B-rank thanks to the presence of a trained Shinobi, she got paid an extra 85,000 Ryo for her troubles, so another £8.5k from one mission.

That was then tacked onto the fact she received Danger Pay for the mission being far above her ranking, and the fact that despite her team being wiped out, she still managed to survive and complete the objective. Akari could have also pushed for recuperation pay, but with the war going on at that time, it was unlikely to work, and Akari really didn't feel much of a need for it. When it was all added together, Akari had made more than just a pretty penny from her few months as a Shinobi. If she wasn't forced to remain a Shinobi until injury, 5 years of service, or extenuating circumstances like pregnancy, psychological issues, or things like that, Akari would have been possibly tempted to simply go open a business. Possibly. Akari found herself enjoying her new life.

Besides, you can say what you will about Shinobi, the job still paid damn good cash.

* * *

The sound of tearing came through the doorway to Akari's room, and Sei frowned, his fist hovering a scant few inches from the closed door.

A few days ago, Akari had entered her room and not come out except to eat, train or go do her assigned mission. She still greeted him politely and made small talk with Kana and himself when she was either eating or waiting for something, but other than those times, she was cooped up in her room, working on something. Kana didn't want to intrude on her daughter's privacy, and Sei found himself as the one needed to break this strange stalemate the family found themselves in.

Rapping gently twice on the door, he heard a chair squeak and footsteps approaching the door. As the metal handle rattled and Akari very quietly cursed to herself, he smirked. A ratcheting sound, which he deduced was the door-lock, run out and with a second rattle, the door was pulled open. "Heya Aniki, what's up?" He frowned at her flippant tone.

"Akari, the question is, what's up with you?" Raising a hand, he stuck his fingers out and bent them down as he listed. "You barely speak to us except in situations where you're pretty much stuck in the same place as us, you only leave your room to eat, train, or do your job, and you haven't told us what is even is you're doing." He closed his hand as he folded his arms over, crossing them before him and 'looking' in Akari's vague direction.

A few silent moments passed before Akari let out a forceful exhale and walked away from him. "Well, I can't exactly show you, but I can talk you through what I'm up to I guess, it's nothing major anyway." Taking the invitation for what it was, Sei took a single step into Akari's room and almost immediately pulled his foot away as he felt it land on something distinctly papery. "Oh, oops."

He heard Akari approach again, and some paper rustled before Akari tugged him forwards. "I kinda forgot I left that there." She muttered, pulling Sei along quickly and slumping back into her chair, leaning back with a squeak and cursing again. "I really need to get some oil for this damned hinge, it's driving me mad." Some paper rustled once again, and Sei found Akari tugging his hand closer.

Following her pull, she guided his grasp to something that felt like wood. Running his hands over the object quickly, he realized it was a chair and after looking at Akari and hearing an agreeing hum, sat himself down, his face turned towards Akari. "So, what are you doing in here Imouto?" With a sigh, Akari rustled some more paper.

"Okay, this is gonna sound crazy and stupid and ridiculous and oh Kami please don't look at me like that okay?!" Sei just let a grin slide onto his face seamlessly. "Ugh. Okay. It's not...finished yet, but~" She chimed the last word out. "-this'll be done before the end of the month. Think of this like a...test-run. I planned on getting you anyways."

Sei furrowed his brow in confusion. Akari needed him to test something. "Imouto, wha-" He felt Akari put a finger across his lips, silencing him.

"Trust me. You do...trust me, right Aniki?" His lips still held, he nodded. "Okay...here goes nothing. Just...when you feel this stick to your head, channel a little Chakra through it. About as much as you'd put through a Fire Finger Jutsu." With that, Akari jabbed something against the back of his head, and he felt it settle against his hair, evidently a piece of paper or something.

Channelling a minute stream of his Chakra into the paper, he frowned when nothing happened. Keeping the stream flowing for a good ten seconds, he was about to ask just what the paper was meant to be doing if anything when something happened. At first, it was like a white line had appeared in his non-existent vision. Considering he hadn't seen anything since he gave his sister his own eyes, this was rather surprising for Sei, and he almost fell off his chair, only being stabilized by Akari, who also began channelling her own Chakra into the seal when Sei's concentration was broken.

As the white strip expanded, Sei could see, almost as though his eyes were slowly opening, as a black-and-white bedroom came to his vision. Some parts were glaring a much brighter white than others, but he still recognized the room as Akari's. What was truly strange was that when he looked at Akari, as he could actually see the Chakra network within her body. It was orange-tinted, but it had something light, almost pure white, flowing through it. With raised eyebrows, he realized he was seeing the same thing his own Sharingan would see if he cared to focus enough. He had never looked towards his sister with such searching eyes, and thus never saw her network, but it was rather...beautiful, seeing this orange flow being entwined within a cocoon of white.

"So Aniki, you done checking me out yet?" She said with a smirk. A smirk. He could actually see her lips again. True, it was only in black and white, and quite strange, but he could see his sisters face again. With a smile, he reached out to touch her cheek, gently caressing it. Not trusting his throat with tears already welling up in his eyes, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers.

Smiling softly, Akari closed her own eyes and simply leaned against her brother. Sure, the Eternal Mangekyo dictated that the original recipient remained blind, but there were certainly workarounds, and that was what Akari spent so long working on. It came to her randomly, pondering oddities about her old world and eventually managing to somehow go from thinking about the Moon of all things all the way to how thermal imaging cameras worked.

She stopped nibbling on her torpedo when she made the leap connection and immediately scribbled down as much of the idea as she could, barely caring when Kushina stole her food. "Im-mouto,...how did you even do this?" Her brother asked, his voice hesitating only a single time, evidence of his incredible willpower. Even this emotional, with his vision being given back, his voice only caught a single time.

"Well, it's pretty simple actually. You know how everything in our world has at least a trace amount of Chakra?" He nodded, watching with fascination as her eyes crinkled up, a sight he never valued before but was infinitely more beautiful when he thought he'd never see it again. "That seal basically...it detects all the Chakra, converts it to an acceptable medium, then sends it directly to your visual cortex. Because it doesn't involve nerves anywhere near your eyes, the Mangekyo stipulation of the donor remaining blind basically gets avoided, and you can see in a black-and-white way."

She shrugged and lifted another seal, showing it to her brother and smiling brightly when he saw his eyes water again as he 'gazed' over the Chakra-infused ink, which probably showed up as a bright-white to him. "The thing is, I'll need to tune it. If I used an obscenely powerful Jutsu or simply coated the air in Chakra, you'd be totally blinded by how bright it was, so I need to set a maximum acceptable brightness for it, but right now, it should work just fine. Basically, the more chakra, the brighter it'll glow." She demonstrated by picking up an empty sheet of paper. It was very faintly white, but still visible easily enough. Then she held up the sealed paper and the lines of Ink glowed brightly compared to the paper.

As soon as she put the paper down, Sei wrapped her up in a tight hug, feeling the seal on the back of his head slip off and his world disappear, but he was too happy and proud to care at that moment. Akari wrapped her own arms around her brother and tucked her head into his neck. "You gave me these eyes, I couldn't just sit by and let you remain so..." She lost her words for a moment and simply tightened her grip.

"Imouto, I was ready to spend all my days just like this if it meant I'd never have to live in a world where your own eyes no longer shined so brightly." He pulled back to plant a gentle kiss on the crown of her head. "I love you Imouto, never change." She chuckled slightly as she withdrew from the hug.

"Oh, I don't plan to. Now scram, I want to get this seal finished sometime in the next month and painted onto you. Hmm, I wonder how you'd look shaved, then I could put it on your scalp and let it disappear beneath that hair. Nobody would know it was there, the perfect hiding spot..." She rubbed her chin and hummed thoughtfully, a grin on her lips as her brother couldn't see it.

Her brother fled the room so quickly he left a scorch mark on the wooden floor, flying down the hallway with the giggling sound of Akari chasing him.

* * *

**Hooray! This chapter took a long time to write. Like, I started it 3 days ago, and it's been kicking me in the teeth refusing to flow properly.**

**Next chapter, Akari gets started on a new project to take up her time after making the newly-named (Literally came up with this while writing these fucking words) Golan-seal. The Golan is a popular Thermal camera used by the Military, and since she (I) based the seal off of how Thermal-Imaging cameras work, I think the Golan-seal works pretty well.**

**Now! This does NOT mean Sei is going to go out fighting and kicking butt. The seal takes constant Chakra flow to use and makes it really hard to focus on doing that whilst fighting, so he's going to remain as an awesome teacher in the Academy, not letting his 'blindness' stop him. He can use the seal almost permanently since it honestly doesn't take much Chakra to just detect Chakra, convert then transmit that information to his visual cortex where it's processed as his vision.**

**Does that actually make legitimate medical sense? No. Does the Mangekyo donor having to remain blind make sense? Fuck no it doesn't. So fuck you, Sei is awesome, I want to hug him. And I haven't forgotten Monty, the sweetie. AWH, I WANT TO HUG THEM BOTH DAMN YOU!**

* * *

**Before the status, just a quick thing. Akari has Ryo, but I'm not really gonna keep track of it, because I don't want to, and a lot of stories put emphasis on money, then basically give their characters infinite cash. Akari has money, she uses it, whatever. She won't buy anything absurd, the biggest purchase for the foreseeable future was her Chakra blades. We cool? Yeah, we cool.**

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 30**

**Age: 11**

**Experience: 13437/30000**

**To Next Level: 16563**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Health Points: 6000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 4000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10**

**Regeneration Rate - 300/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 30**

**Vitality - 25**

**Endurance - 20**

**Intelligence - 20**

**Agility - 40**

**Wisdom - 15**

**Luck - 25**


	8. Chapter 8

**SORRY THIS IS LATE BOOS! I left my phone in another room and missed my 5PM alarm, SORRY!**

**For those curious, I'm NEVER EVER EVER DOING A GROUP INVITE! I fucking HATE when stories have the character just invite a dozen people and let them gain power in the same way. I like having my characters basically wielding this power that makes them better than their fellows. Weird, I know.**

**Just a thought...Monty is cute enough to be a lethal weapon as well. Hmm, imagine a Snake Dojutsu...LAUNCHING SNAKES FROM YOUR EYES AUGH! Yeah, no, I didn't need that mental image...But since I have it, you all are cursed to see that as well.**

_**Chapter 8**_

* * *

Flipping a piece of sausage into the air, Akari watched Monty rapidly coil up before launching forwards and capturing the errant piece of meat in her mouth.

With a chuckle and a quick head-rub, Akari popped a bit of bacon onto her hand, still holding her torpedo in her other hand as Monty slithered up and wrapped her tongue around the meat. Biting on her own meal, Akari cast her gaze out across the buildings of Konoha, the rising sun just peeking above the tree-tops of the massive forests surrounding the village.

With keen red eyes Akari looked across the village, watching a Yamanaka stood outside the clan's flower shop setting out signs, several Akimichi opening food-stalls, a patrol of Uchiha Military Police hopping from roof-top to roof-top, and the village steadily came alive. It was like watching a flower blooming, as more and more people filled the street, all the while Akari observed from up high, a snake around one arm and a delicious breakfast in the other.

Taking a final bite, the girl quickly dusted her hands together to clear the crumbs stuck to her gloves, then lifted her arm to let Monty slip up and around her neck, where she was most comfortable during travel. Planted firmly against the edge of the building, Akari let her weight pull her down sthe side of the building slightly, before kicking off the lip of the building and jumping the street, immediately settling into a quick run across the rooftops.

More than once she passed other Shinobi, sparing them a wave or two on her way across the village. Kushina had been quite understanding and supportive of Akari actually visiting the Academy during the day. Apparently the woman was all for having medics who could actually fight, especially female medics. In her own words, she said 'Men like to imagine us as damsels in distress. Make sure you give a few a nice Kunai in the balls from me, okay Akari-chan?'

Kushina-hime was scary when she spoke like that.

* * *

Cricking his neck, Sei listened to the low-level murmuring of his students as they chatted away.

Akari said she'd be around sometime during the morning, but the fact she didn't actually tell him when she'd arrive kind of threw a wrench into trying to plan anything for the day. It'd suck if he planned out something great for his students, only for Akari to burst in suddenly and distract everyone. The door suddenly flying open lent a lot of credence to that idea.

With all gazes focused on the door, including her brothers, Akari had a triflingly easy time slipping in through the window. Ninja wire was truly the most useful thing ever. It could be controlled and manipulated with Chakra, so Akari just bound the door handle with som, made the wire pull the handle down to then shove the door open, before receding. All from outside of the building, dangling above the window.

Walking on the ceiling, Akari sat down with her legs crossed directly above Sei, watching as a few students glanced about. FInally, one of the ones further back leaned slightly and noticed her, gawking and covering his mouth as he tried to stifle his laughter. The one sat next to him followed his gaze, and that Kunoichi also burst out laughing but with no attempt to cover it.

Within moments, the entire class had noticed where Akari was, and it was apparently extremely amusing. Looking down, her brother didn't look too amused to be the only one who didn't know what was going on. Silently, Akari detached from the roof and fell behind her brothers chair, muffling her landing completely with Chakra before she glomped him with her arms, getting a startled yelp.

"Guess who Aniki!" She chirped, much to the raucous laughter of the students and the exasperated sigh of her brother as he worked to untangle himself from her grasp. "Awh, and I was gonna give you this seal. Oh well, no cha-" Before she oculd say another word, her brother immediately froze and 'looked' at her with the best puppy-dog face he could make.

It didn't work very well, but Akari still stuck the paper seal onto the back of his head, channelling a little of her own Chakra into the thread she bound to it. "I'll keep this going for ya Aniki, so don't worry about it." The minute drain on her reserves was pretty much completely ignorable, she could keep that seal going for days if she really wanted.

Smiling, Sei stood up from his chair and patted her shoulder. "Thanks Imouto." Turning back to face his class, he stuck his arm out to gesture at Akari's face. "Well class, you asked, and I have delivered. Not quite the introduction I had hoped for, but still a good one. May I gladly present to you Uchiha Akari, the Crimson Medic, and my younger sister."

It was obvious that despite the fact the class were expecting her, many still were quite in awe of the girl stood before them. Sei's class were actually in their third year at the Academy, and since pretty much all of the Academy students entered at 8, they were all the same age as her. Yet while they were kicking around in class and not doing anything noteworthy, Akari was already a Tokubetsu Jonin and had a Bingo-book page.

"Wait, fucking what?!" Akari whipped her head around to stare at her surprised brother. She knew she had a damn title, but the fact that she was in a Bingo-book somehow slipped past their notice. "You mean to tell me I've even got a damn bounty now?" Her brother just nodded at her. "Fucking great." Her crass words were heard clearly by the assorted students, but aside from a few winces and mutters about etiquette from some of the more snobbish clan kids, nobody really cared. "Show me." She fisted a hand on her brother shoulder, watching him quickly pull a book out from within his Chunin vest and hand it to her.

Flicking through the booklet, Akari watched face after face go by until she saw her own, and balked at the sight of her. Evidently some lucky, or perhaps unlucky, shmuck managed to get a picture of her during the Crimson Spear event. She was stood atop a mound of dirt with her arms folded, her left eye bleeding down her face. Evidently she'd tried to wipe the blood away at some point and succeeded in nothing but smearing it across her face, lending to a rather bloody visage.

**Basic Information:**

**Name: Uchiha Akari.**

**Age: 11.**

**Recognizable Traits: Black pony-tail, Red Scarf/hood, Red Sash on waist.**

**Village: Konohagakure.**

**Rank: Tokubetsu Jonin.**

**Perso-**

Akari glazed her eyes over as she scanned the entry, focusing on two particular little points.

**Bounty: 250,000 Ryo**

**Orders: Will pay triple, 750,000 Ryo total, for live retrieval.**

So, they put her head at a value of 250,000 Ryo, and if captured alive they'd triple the bounty. Evidently they thought her 'blood was strong' or some shit. "Well, that's definitely interesting. Wonder why...oh for fuck sake. Okay kiddos, listen up. And if any of you fucks say I'm younger than you I'll rip your spine out your throat and shove it back up your ass." The mental imagery was definitely enough to silence the room of any murmuring.

"Akari...please don't traumatize my students." She turned to give him a smirk over her shoulder.

"I'd never do that." The look on her face definitely did nothing to offset his worries, but she'd already turned back to the class by that point. "Okay then, I've heard that you gakis wanted me to come in and show off some medical stuff, yeah?" The class mumbled a bit, and Akari smacked her hand into the desk, making the closest students visibly jump in their seats. "I said, you gakis WANTED me to come in and show off some medical Jutsu, RIGHT?" The room was a lot louder as the class yelled their agreement. "Good. Well, I don't particularly feel cruel today, so I won't make any of you volunteer for this auspicious task. Instead, I'll introduce you to a dear, sweet friend of mine."

Lifting an arm to her side, several students yelped when a white mass suddenly slithered out from her scarf, revealing itself to be a snake as it wrapped slowly around Akari's arm. "This,-" Akari rubbed the top of the snakes head. "-is Monty. She's an Albino Ball Python. She's also, after my brother, the next most valuable thing in my life, and she's going to help me out with this demonstration. Monty, if you would?"

Without warning the snake suddenly had her mouth latched onto Akari's arm before yanking back and hooking her teeth into Akari's skin, scoring a long jagged rent down her arm, getting numerous startled yells and exclamations in doing so. Her brother looked distinctly uncomfortable at the sight and sound but knew that Akari trusted Monty quite whole-heartedly. Besides, Monty had no venom to speak of, as all Pythons were constrictors by nature, they didn't bite to kill.

With a slightly-pained smirk, Akari waved her bleeding arm about. "Right, so this is a prime example of just one type of wound a medic has to deal with." Raising her arm to let Monty climb back onto her shoulder out of the way, Akari gestured at the wound. "It's jagged, bleeding heavily enough that I can't clearly make out how deep it is, and since I have to work on myself, the pain is disorienting. Now then, in this situation, the most important thing is to remain level-headed. If I started panicking and flailing about, even if another medic was nearby to help, I would be costing myself valuable time which could be better spent healing myself."

Flicking her free hand into a seal, Akari let the flickering green light of the Mystical Palm form around her hand, waving it before her face. "When using this technique, which some of you will no doubt recognize as the Mystical Palm Technique, the most important two things are control and intent. I must retain a near-perfect control over my Chakra or else the Jutsu will falter, potentially killing me with errant healing Chakra. But, I must also have it firmly sealed within my mind just what I want my Jutsu to do." Akari placed her hand against her wound, lifting one side so the students could watch the rents closing up.

"The reason all Iryo-nin know the human body is intimately is we HAVE to know exactly what we are doing when we fix something. If one of you made this seal and tried to 'heal' this wound, you'd likely screw up the entire inner workings of my arm." As some mutters picked up, Akari growled, a low thing but plenty loud enough to startle all the students. "And before any of you fucking idiots get the idea to use it in combat, remember that to heal someone, they have to make sure they don't use their Chakra at all, the risk of interference is extremely high. If I tried to force healing Chakra into my brother for example, all he'd have to do to clear that out is to just circulate his Chakra within his own body, and my foreign chakra would be attacked and destroyed easily, like an antibody."

Waving a hand at Sei, Akari kept her eyes locked onto the class. "Unconscious patients can't do that, and for absurdly-skilled Iryo-nin like Tsunade-hime, they can manipulate their own Chakra to imitate the patients, thus subverting the bodies defences, which can be used offensively. However, if you are that skilled with medical Jutsu, you will probably have learnt the second most common Iryo-nin technique, the Chakra Scalpel."

Forming the necessary seals and poking a finger out, the class watched as a blue-tinted haze settled over the outstretched digit. "Now, this is the Chakra Scalpel Jutsu. As I mentioned, it can be used offensively, but its primary use is to sever the internals of a Shinobi without having to open their skin and risk infection setting in." A few hands raised when Akari paused, and she smirked. "The reason for this is that sometimes we have to re-heal internal parts that have been 'fixed' by idiots. It was either this, or just slicing their bodies apart and fixing the damage with a new wound to seal up." Those hands went down again.

"In a battlefield, the aim of the game is to stabilize, not to fix completely. Tsunade-hime and myself differ in how this should be accomplished. Her medical doctrine expressly states that Medics should stay together within a designated point and allow Shinobi to come to them for healing, relying on others to guard them. Personally, I think it's a crock of shite made up by a medic too scared to face combat, screw what the stories say about her power. I got my moniker by ignoring that little rule and becoming a combat-medic. I spent that battle running around fighting and healing, not sitting back twiddling my thumbs as I wait for another Shinobi to triage."

Leaning back with her hands on the desk, Akari gazed over each and every student present. "Think about it. If I stayed nice and coddled up with that little boundary, how many of our Shinobi would have died during that battle because they couldn't reach help, and no help came to them? But anyways, you lot didn't ask me here to rant about silly things like that."

Akari spent the rest of the allotted hour showing the Jutsu off, asking questions, seeing if any students had an aptitude for it (Which only one did, and that was because they had a Water Affinity and high control over their Chakra), and then bidding them and her brother goodbye. With a Shunshin, she darted up the tower, and was about to knock on the door when...

***Ding!***

A rather loud ding, enough to make her ears ring slightly, chimed out randomly. With a sigh, Akari lowered her hand and sat down on a nearby sofa, opening her status menu and humming.

**Update Log v173**

**Health and Chakra regeneration speed have been modified from X/second to X/minute, and Health/Chakra amount of been reduced from 10 times to 5 times. To make up for this, please accept a complimentary lottery item. In addition, Chakra costs for techniques have been reverted to their base prices. We apologize for the inconvenience.**

"Fuck your game balance bullshit." Akari hissed. It wasn't that bad, since she still regenerated 8 Health and 5 Chakra every second, but it was still pretty damn major. With a groan, Akari opened her inventory to see what item the game gave her, and froze.

**The Rolling Table!**

**This item can be used once a month to dispense a single random item from any of the Universes NoxCorp operate within. This excludes not-useful items like vases, mugs, biological waste, empty bottles, wet wipes, wrappers, broken electronics, bricks, paint, door handles, rib-cages, and many many more.**

"Wow, okay, so they meant it when they said it was a lottery item, not just one random item. Cool." Tapping it, Akari saw an icon like a pachinko machine lever, and was about to select it when the Hokage's office opened and Minato walked out with Kushina beside him. "Oh, hey you two, sorry, I didn't want to intrude." Akari easily merged into a half-truth. She knew they were discussing something, and it was the perfect excuse for her not immediately entering. Minato waved her off.

"It's fine, we weren't discussing anything you won't hear about today anyway." This perked Akari's interest, and she followed the pair directly rather than simply flitting about with her Shunshin.

Walking backwards, Akari eyed Minato, who had a smug look on his face. "Kushina-sama, if you tell me why Minato looks so smug, I'll surrender myself to your tender mercies for an hour." Minato never looked more betrayed and afraid than in that moment when Kushina grinned.

"Kushina-hime, I've never been able to hold something over Akari-chan! I'll...take you to Ichiraku's?" Kushina opened her mouth, and he panicked. "I'll convince Kakashi-kun to let you play with his hair!" Kushina turned her hard gaze onto him, and he gulped. "I mean...I'll try?" He squeaked out.

Sitting happily in the peanut gallery, Akari pulled out a bag of popcorn from her inventory and munched on it, watching the pair with amusement as they gazed at each other. "...And dye it!" Kushina proclaimed, and Minato nodded, smirking when he looked at Akari. Akari just shrugged, the man really did that, just so she wouldn't hear about something until later that day? That was a pretty bad deal in her opinion.

"You're really that desperate to know something that I don't?" Minato completely and unabashedly nodded. "Whatever, you said I'd know about it today, so I don't really care." Minato pouted, actually pouted at her.

"Akari-chan, you're meant to be unhappy that I finally know something you don't!" She just waved a hand about.

"You know a lot that I don't...I mean, take Fuinjutsu!"

Kushina quickly cut in. "Not for much longer. I'm gonna be cooped up in an apartment for months soon, so you can bet your butt I'm dragging someone down with me, and what better to practice for months at a time than Fuinjutsu?...As long as you don't blow yourself up that is." Akari shrugged.

"Well, I do kinda want to learn Fuinjutsu, I've always had a knack for it but never really got the time to focus on it between by Knife-fight practising and Iryo-nin studies." Yawning, Akari turned back around and kept walking, falling into step beside Kushina. "Long as I don't have to be the one you test the seals on." Kushina looked pretty affronted at that.

"It was one time!"

* * *

**Bit of a word-vomit there in regards to Iryo-nin and how I perceive them.**

**I know I'm not accurately following the Naruto timeline with those events, but it's close enough, within the 1YbNb (1 Year before Naruto's birth) stretch, so I don't care if the events are slightly out of order.**

**Now then, I've decided to do a re-cap every 4 chapters of all Akari's Techniques and Proficiencies, just to make it easier to keep track of. Every chapter will end with her status, but to avoid bloating the word-count too much, the listed two will only be every 4 chapters.**

**If there's anything obvious I've missed that every Academy Student should know, please tell me so I can add it.**

**Also, if any of you have suggestions for items the Rolling Table dispenses, shout 'em out in the reviews and I'll see about adding them. Don't expect each one to be awesome, you could have Benny's pistol Maria if you wanted, or a Star Trek Phaser, maybe even a re-programmed Droideka!**

**If you have a cool suggestion and want to throw it into the pot, just say so! Maybe even make multiple if you'd like, just...try not to make them ridiculous like Mjolnir, a Vortex Manipulator, Syndromes Gauntlet or the Noisy Cricket, those are all just a 'little' too powerful for my liking.**

***Edit* - Guys, thanks for the suggestions, but I did kinda hope they'd be just a little weaker. I mean, stuff like DXD Chess Pieces, Devil's Fruit and whatnot is a bit much. I meant more like obscure and interesting kit, maybe a suit of Mandalorian Scout Armor, or a Flask of Re-filling, weird yet useful kit that isn't really that powerful but is still useful.**

**(I mean, Mandalorian Scout Armor is fucking powerful sure, but it looks so cooooool!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 30**

**Age: 11**

**Experience: 17521/30000**

**To Next Level: 12479**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Health Points: 3000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 8.3*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 2000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 300/m - 5/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 30**

**Vitality - 25**

**Endurance - 20**

**Intelligence - 20**

**Agility - 40**

**Wisdom - 15**

**Luck - 25**

**Techniques**

**Mystical Palm technique/Beginner - The catch-all medical ability. Able to regenerate wounds of varying degrees. Usage - 25CP/s. Heal-rate - 25HP/s. Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Novice - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Novice. Usage: 50CP/s. Heal-rate - 50HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Graduate - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Graduate****. Usage: 75CP/s. Heal-rate - 75HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlock****ing improved variant.**

**Fire Release: Great Fireball - A well-known Jutsu within the Uchiha Clan. Moulding Chakra within your lungs, you can expel flames as either a colossal ball of fire, or as a continuous stream of flame. Ball Usage - 150 CP/each. Stream Usage - 25CP/s.**

**Fire Release: Phoenix Flower ****\- This technique coats Shuriken, Kunai or Senbon in Fire Chakra, slightly hiding their exact location within the flames and causing extra damage. Usage - 15CP/weapon.**

**Substitution Jutsu - An Academy standard, the art of swapping your position with an inanimate object up to the same size as yourself when in imminent danger. Usage - 75CP/each.**

**Transformation Jutsu - Take another form and hide in plain sight. This ability puts an illusion over the user, but is easily disrupted. Target must be within 2 feet of height to caster, and within 50lbs of weight. Usage - 75CP/cast, 2CP/s to maintain.**

**Clone Jutsu - An illusionary non-corporeal clone. Great for distractions, but not much else. Upgrades into Shadow Clones, which are corporeal. Usage - 15CP/each.**

**Poison Extraction Jutsu - This ability drains poisons and foreign bodies from wounds. Length of time for extraction varies depending on strength and amount of poison. Usage - 100CP/s.**

**Shunshin - The pretty-much teleportation ability. This Jutsu acts by hyper-enhancing a Shinobi's abilities, essentially enabling them to run at absurd speed for a fraction of a second. Cost is calculated by distance. Usage 15CP/meter.**

**Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan - The eyes of a close relative. When in use, will no longer degrade visual acuity. Mangekyo Techniques will now also no longer damage eye-sight. Same abilities as regular Mangekyo Sharingan. Usage: 25CP/s.**

**Left Eye: Kami No Te (The Hand of God) - This technique grants the user the ability to completely manipulate the ground around them within a fifty-meter radius. This requires great concentration but can be devastating if used correctly. Usage - 500CP/Cast, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Right Eye: Kami No Shinpan (The Judgment of God) - This technique is a direct-contact Jutsu. If Akari lays a hand upon her target, they are 'judged'. If they have hostile intent towards Akari or those she cares about, they are judged negatively, and a Chakra pulse will stop their heart, as well as demolishing their entire Chakra network. Even if their heart is restarted somehow, their Chakra will be forever destroyed. If they do not have any hostile intent, they will be judged positively, and nothing will happen. Usage - 1000CP/Cast.**

**Susanoo: As the user has both Mangekyo, the Susanoo has been unlocked, a large Chakra construct capable of being formed around the user for protection and offence. This construct can be summoned in multiple forms, each one being larger, more protective and with more abilities.**

**Level 1 - A rib-cage surrounds the user, protecting them from harm but lacking offence. The form will slowly grow until it is formed into a large skeletal structure, where musculature and skin will grow, finally forming into a giant humanoid: 500CP/Cast, 25CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 2 - Armour forms around the Susanoo for added protection, though it is not a complete protection: 1250CP/Cast from nothing, 500CP/Cast from Level 1, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 3 - The Susanoo will now form the final pieces of armour, becoming fully-enshrouded. The Susanoo will gain wings for flight, with Ornate robes over heavy armour granting the construct hefty defences. The Complete-body Susanoo is capable of summoning weaponry to assist it during battle: 2500CP/Cast from nothing, 1500CP/Cast from level 1, 1000CP/Cast from level 2, 100CP/s to maintain.**

**Proficiencies**

**Uchiha Interceptor Fist - A Taijutsu form used by the Uchiha which makes the best possible usage of the Sharingan Dojutsu's predictive abilities to counter enemy attacks and bring victory. - Level 15 - 74.7%**

**Shurikenjutsu - The art of throwing pointy things. Pretty self-explanatory. - Level 13 - 33.1%**

**Bukijutsu - The way of the weapon. Covers all weaponry. - Level 19 - 85.8%**

**Knife-fighter - Using short-blades, daggers and Kunai in close-quarters combat. - Level 27- 1.7%**

**Fuinjutsu - Sealing arts. The practice of using ink to achieve your goals. - Level 9 - 5.21%**

**Mystical Palm - Ability to detect and heal wounds using linked Jutsu. - Level 43 - 11.7%**

**Polearm-user - The act of swinging a long thing with a pointy bit at the end. - Level 1 - 7.6% - Degrading -**

**Tree-running - Leaf Shinobi are trained to flit through trees, which increases their speed and concealment. - Level 27 - 45.1%**

**One-handed Seal usage - Using only one hand to make seals? You showoff. - Level 7 - 12.0%**

**Cooking - Really? This is a proficiency? Whatever. Your cooking skills have been noted. Now get out there and make more food! - Level 13 - 22.8%**


	9. Chapter 9

**I WANT TO KICK CHROME IN THE NADS!**

**So, I made a bunch of edits, changing out a lot of the chapter, then opened a second tab to copy over the Fuinjutsu stat and edit it from Chapter 8. But I misclicked after copy-pasting it and closed the whole, fucking, chapter.**

**Without saving. Ctrl+Shift+T didn't matter, because it doesn't save data like that, so that writing went poof. Yay. Oh well.**

**Because this chapter is being re-uploaded, I've made sure it's almost double the length of my normal chapters to make up the difference, since I'm not uploading Chapter 10 today, and instead I've deleted and re-uploaded Chapter 9. That way people actually know that it's changed.**

**The first section of this chapter is mostly the same, but everything after that is different, so for those of you who already read Chapter 9, this chapter is VASTLY different to the original chapter 9, so the only part that remains the same is the first section.**

**Hope you enjoy this revised version, and make sure to give Azaira a round of applause for their excellent review pointing out all the mistakes I made with my hasty decision-making!**

_**Chapter 9**_

* * *

"Wait, what?"

Tweaking a finger in his ear, Minato leaned his head to one side, ignoring the noise Akari made. "You heard just fine Akari-chan. I'm being formally instated as the Yondaime Hokage tomorrow afternoon." With a raised eyebrow, Akari just looked at him. "What?"

"What yourself? I don't really see why I should care too much. I mean, aside from the obligatory congratulations I feel like I should be feeling sorry for you." Kushina guffawed loudly from the kitchen, wrapped up in cooking something, while Minato just looked confused. "Look, Minato, have you ever seen the Hokage's desk without any paperwork on it?" He took a few moments to think before shaking his head. "Okay, and you're still willing to put up with literally having a pen in your hand the entire time you are the Hokage? Doing all that paperwork?"

A look of dawning realization came across Minato's face. With a giggle, Akari watched him bury his head in his hands and mumble something incoherent. "Hey, look at the bright side, at least this means...hmm...you know, aside from the whole 'being in command of the entire village' thing, there isn't an upside to this."

Akari distinctly ignored the mumbled curses sprouting from Minato's lips as she patted his shoulder, instead wandered towards the kitchen where Kushina was stifling her laughter and trying to avoid burning the food. "Ha! You remind me of myself a little Akari. When I was younger, I wanted to be the Hokage. Then I saw how much paperwork was involved and settled for a family instead." The red-haired woman said with a smile.

"Well, with how often you and Minato send me out on 'training exercises' during nights, I'm sure you'll have a family of your own soon enough." The woman spluttered in surprise as Akari casually flipped a knife over in her hand and began dicing some peppers. Closing her mouth again, Kushina just sighed.

"So, since when did you know how to dice peppers like that?" Akari just shrugged.

"Well, since forever I guess. I mean, a kitchen knife isn't too different to my Bowie knives, it's just how you use them that changes. Because I can handle my knives just fine..." Akari spun the sharp blade around her fingers and over her hand before sliding it around to a reverse-grip to impale an unfortunate piece of pepper, quickly chomping down on it as she returned the knife to a standard grip. "-handling a kitchen knife is just as easy."

What Akari failed to mention was that her proficiencies were what even allowed her to do such a thing, since Bukijutsu covered all weapons, and her knife-fighter specifically made her knife abilities stronger. In terms of the food itself, well, making breakfast-style Torpedo baps like they were going out of fashion meant her cooking proficiency went through the roof.

It was...really weird, knowing that while she had never looked at the recipe for Sukiyaki, she knew exactly how to make it, what would go well with it, and who among her admittedly abysmally small circle of people she liked would actually enjoy eating it. The answer was Sei, and that was it. Ramen was obviously Kushina's domain, though after introducing her to the wonders of a Breakfast-style Torpedo, she seemingly converted away from such a meal. Minato was partial to burgers of all things, and her mother...well, her mother didn't like to admit it, but she adored Dango, often surreptitiously nibbling a piece while she did paperwork.

Smiling, Kushina gestured towards the rest of the peppers. "Well, chop-chop!" She said with a chuckle.

* * *

"Kushina-hime?"

The redhead leaned back from her place on a sofa to look at Akari, a smile on her lips. "Yes Akari-chan?" Akari stubbed her toe against the floor a few times before settling her resolve.

"I want...can I..." She floundered for a moment, and Kushina rolled her eyes. "Can you please teach me Fuinjutsu?" She quickly blurted out, bring Kushina up short. "I know you're probably like really busy or don't want to give away clan secrets or anything but I heard Minato-sama learned his Fuinjutsu from you and so I wanted to ask since y'know I've always liked Fuinjutsu and I know you're an Uzumaki with awesome sealing skills an-mph!" Kushina quieted Akari down by sticking her hand over the girls mouth.

"Akari-chan, you only had to ask. I don't care about all that stuffy clan-secrets business. Besides-" She swung her arm over Akari's shoulders, drawing her into a side-hug. "-you're a friend, so of course I'd help you out." Akari gave the woman a smile. "So, what kinda seals are you interested in?"

"Thanks Kushina. And I don't know to be honest. I mean, I can make my own combat seals, explosive tags and stuff like that just fine. Of course, making them smaller and hit harder is always useful, but whatever. Barrier seals are pretty cool, and maybe containment seals?" She quirked her lips. "I mean, what's your seal? I don't actually know." Kushina smirked and channelled a bit of Chakra to make her seal appear.

Akari already knew that Kushina was a Jinchuriki, after spending so much time guarding her it was going to come out soon enough, so Kushina just out and told her one day. "Well, this seal is a little special as you know." She ran a finger along the swirling line slowly. "The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, possibly the only seal strong enough to hold the Kyuubi in. The funny part is that it isn't actually too complicated, because the seal is formed by just using two Four Symbols seals back to back then binding them with an Uzumaki spiral." She looked up at Akari with a smirk. "So, want to try and learn it?"

"Sure!"

* * *

**Fuinjutsu - Sealing arts. The practice of using ink to achieve your goals. - Level 57 - 77.3%**

"Fucking seals..." Akari muttered, clenching and unclenching her cramped, thoroughly ink-stained hand. Ever since she told Kushina about what she wanted to do, the redhead used every single day they spent together as a time for more lessons. Akari was thankful for being able to learn so damn much, but...it was still mind-bendingly repetitive inscribing seal after seal to Kushina's exacting demands.

The hilarious part was that she even unlocked a calligraphy proficiency. Apparently despite her own research into Fuinjutsu, she wasn't scribing nearly enough seals to count, but now that she spent every day writing hundreds if not thousands of seals, she had a trackable proficiency for it. Akari was just grateful that it meant the Game automatically helped her to draw the seals out near-perfectly since that means Kushina was more willing to show her more advanced seals.

Akari had already made her own storage and explosive seals, and the experimental seal she made for her brother definitely caught Kushina's interest, not that she could examine it without the seal key which was safely stored within a seal hidden on Akari's covered bicep. Of course, if Kushina simply asked for it, Akari would be more than willing to give it as payment for Kushina teaching her, but the woman was just a little too headstrong to do that.

That was something worth noting. Ever since it came out that her brother could still 'see', so many people practically demanded to know exactly how it was done, who did it, and how to copy the seal. Fortunately enough, as she had a line to the Hokage through Minato, Akari managed to keep her identity secret and get the seal put under special observation, which basically meant that the creator could choose what to do with it. At least, until the Hokage requested it, at which point anything could happen.

For the moment, the Golan seal was being used in the hospital for any Shinobi who were permanently blinded and still wanted to continue their work. Because they didn't have her seal key they couldn't copy the seal, which was another reason why Akari was writing out so many inscriptions, as the hospital was inundated by requests for the seal from Shinobi who were blinded during the Third Great Ninja War.

She could have gotten around that by giving up the key, but Akari really didn't want to do that. It was strange, almost like something nagging at her, warning her to not do something like that. That bad things would happen if she gave the hospital her seal key. Besides, she had to practice her Calligraphy anyway, might as well spend her time doing something useful instead of making a bunch of probably-never-to-be-used seals.

Cracking her back, Akari gently placed the finished seal off to the side to dry and unfolded another, ready to start yet another Golan seal.

* * *

Minato's inauguration was definitely awe-inspiring.

For the morning before it happened, several signs were placed around the town, Akari being asked to plant a few herself by Kushina, stating that Hiruzen was resigning as Hokage and appointing Minato as the Yondaime Hokage. The general reaction was honestly really positive, considering that Minato was renowned as 'Konoha's Yellow Flash', so that helped. It was also great that the man was naturally charismatic, so when it came time for his speech, Akari made sure to grab a front-building seat (The area in front of the Hokage was for civilians, the Shinobi were all on buildings.) and watched with rapt interest as he espoused his vows to uphold the Will of Fire, to guard Konoha and its interests, and to just generally be awesome.

Akari didn't really pay attention to the individual words, she just let herself be wrapped up in the positively infectious jubilation flowing through Konoha. Minato was the very first Hokage to be inaugurated during peace-time, turning over a new leaf for the Hidden Leaf village so to speak, and you could tell that the inhabitants of Konoha were positively bouncing about it. "Hey, you're the Crimson Medic aren't you?"

The random people noticing her, however, that was definitely not what she expected. "Uhh, yeah?" She turned to look at the random young Shinobi who asked her, startled slightly when two empty eye-sockets were looking back at her.

"I...wanted to thank you. You were...you saved me out there..." Akari winced when she couldn't recall the person, but it seemed that they had gotten one of her seals since they quickly waved their hands about. "Oh I don't blame you, I'm sorry!" They quickly yelled out. "I know you saved so many Shinobi and remembering a single one out of them all wouldn't be likely...I just wanted to say thank you!"

The person then bowed lowly, and Akari quickly settled a hand on their shoulder. "Please, um...thank you, but please don't do that, I hate people bowing to me, it makes me feel really awkward." She felt them try to instinctively bow again and smiled softly. "Just knowing you're alright is good enough. Guess you got one of those hospital seals then huh?" The blind Shinobi nodded quickly.

"Yeah. I just wish I could thank them as well!" They gestured with a hand at their surroundings, at the buildings dotted with Shinobi. "I mean, any one of them could be responsible, and I'd never be able to say thank you for letting me keep being a Shinobi, y'know?" Akari smirked knowingly.

"Oh, I don't know, they might be closer than you think."

* * *

"Kunoichi classes? Yeah, not happening."

Kushina pouted from her place on the couch. She announced rather abruptly that she was pregnant about a month ago, and since Fuinjutsu didn't need any real physical activity, a lot of time was spent in the living room of her apartment writing seals. "But Akari-chaaan!" Kushina argued rather eloquently, getting a dead-pan look in response.

"No." Akari replied without blinking, curling her current ink line around and rejoining it into the main portion of the seal. "I got lucky, I got out early enough that I didn't have to take part in them, there's no way in hell I'm going to willingly subject myself to that crap." Akari shuddered slightly.

Kunoichi classes were seriously one of the dumbest things Akari had heard of. Flower Arrangement, Tea Ceremonies, Ikebana lessons, goddamn fucking Seduction Classes. If the plan was the make the Kunoichi in question feel like she was literally being degraded, they did a grade-A job of it. All but telling them that while the boys got no extra classes of the sort, they were expected to sit there and be taught how and when to be demure and shy, or sultry and seducing, or any other mix of acts.

In Akari's honest point of view, those classes were complete shit, and the fact that all Kunoichi had mandatory classes in it during the Academy made Akari thank her lucky stars she got out a few years early, and avoided those classes. She knew the risks, a Kunoichi had a far greater risk of being captured and raped than a male Shinobi, but that didn't mean she had to learn twelve different ways to pour a cup of fucking tea.

That might actually give her a good excuse for her problem with etiquette, rarely addressing people properly. It was just a hold-over of her old life not having honorifics, but maybe she could rely on the excuse that she never went to Kunoichi class...but then it'd make people wonder why she was so reluctant to learn. "So yeah, I'm not going to those damned classes, and nothing, I mean nothing, will convince me otherwise." She gave Kushina a firm look, and the woman huffed at her.

"Whatever."

* * *

**Quest Completed**

**Protection Duties.**

**Objective:**

**Protect Kushina Uzumaki for undisclosed length of time - Completed.**

**Reward: Extra title slot. Experience calculated on completion. Total experience earned - 25000.**

**Bonus Objective:**

**Avoid being treated like a doll by Kushina on first meeting - Completed.**

**Reward: Chakra-conduction Jutsu scroll, 1000 experience.**

**Quest Received**

**Survive.**

**Objective:**

**Survive the night.**

**Reward: . . . **

**Ú̵̳̗̀̓̈́͑͘ ̴͔̝̼̝̦̮̪̟̃͜N̸̨̡̢̙͓͙̊̍̓̏̈̒̂̐̀͜͝ ̷̯͕̰̯͛̓͒K̵̢̩̮͇̩̗̳̲̜̙̚ ̶̨̟̲̩̘̦̮͇̎ͅṆ̴͉̇̎̊̀̾̀̄̋̇̊ ̸̞̙̩̝͇̊͌́̕͜͝Ô̶̪͎̐̈́̀͑͠ ̴͓̤͔̖͋͜ͅW̷̼̊̄̂̒̎͌̓̾̕ ̶̝̠̳̹́͋̒͋̀N̴̞͍̼̯͖̩̞̻̞̊́́́̏̄̄͒͘͘ͅ**

Danger.

Every finely-tuned instinct for danger Akari had felt practically burned through her body when she read the quest her Game had given her seemingly at random. The day had gone just fine, she was settling in at home to inscribe some seals before going to bed, and at random her quest icon started flashing. She saw that a quest had finished, and thought little of it.

Sometimes the Game gave her odd little quests like inscribing a hundred explosive seals, or levelling a certain proficiency, so she didn't think much of the quest finishing. When she saw Protection Duties was finished and a new quest was beneath it, she thought it a little odd but figured that she'd be taken off of guarding Kushina the following morning. But then she read the next objective, or more notably the title.

**Survive. **

That one word made a chill dance up her spine. Reading the short quest quickly, Akari almost fell off her chair when she saw the broken text for the reward. Never before had a quest given such a weird and broken reward, and it was...pretty terrifying.

Shaking her head, Akari quickly opened her inventory and equipped all of her standard equipment. As her things appeared on her body, Akari took a step forwards the door and jolted when Minato of all people randomly appeared in her room, knocking her over when she stepped straight into him and nearly sending the pair to the ground. Thankfully they both had fast enough reactions that they fumbled for merely a second before straightening out. "Yondai-"

Akari began speaking, but before she could say anything he looked straight into her eyes for half a second before handing her a tiny bundle. "Look after him." Was all he said before he disappeared again, hearing Akari blinking at the space he once occupied. Looking down at the swaddled lump in her arms, she unfolded a flap of fabric and gasped at the baby within her arms.

The child had blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes, with whisker-like marks on his cheeks which was definitely pretty unique. Considering just who gave the little bundle to Akari, she presumed that this was Kushina and Minato's child. Folding her legs beneath herself, Akari settled in, hearing a massive explosion outside and flinching unconsciously.

Her movements jarred the baby slightly and it began to cry, leading Akari to panic slightly as she fumbled and tried to rock the child gently, massively out of her depth at randomly just being handed a child. Thankfully only a few minutes passed before Minato appeared with Kushina in tow. "Kushina-hime." She murmured when she saw the state the red-head was in, quickly darting over to her and, after making sure it was actually her, handing her the child. "Yondaime-sama, what's going on?" She turned to the blonde-haired man.

"Someone found us. Kushina's water broke and we followed the procedure set aside, but just after Naruto was born...someone came. They killed the ANBU guards, then Miwako and took Naruto hostage. I got him out and came here, where I knew he'd be safe." He said this all as he took Akari's arm and, after a loaded glance at Kushina, Hiraishin'd the pair of them into one of his safe-houses. "By that time, they got the Kyuubi no Kitsune out of Kushina and managed to get it to rampage. I had to use a Hiraishin barrier to divert the beast's Bijuudama and now...the fox is charging towards Konoha. We have to stop it. I already dealt with the one who murdered Miwako and attacked my wife, we just need to figure out how..."

Akari quirked her lips and shrugged. "Then...seal it in me." Minato gave her a piercing look, and she closed her eyes. "I can take it. Trust me. But we both know that trying to kill the Kyuubi is going to end up with far too many casualties. Iwa, Kumo and Kiri would jump at the chance to reignite the war and finish us off, and with the amount of strength we'd lose fighting off the strongest tailed beast...?" She shook her head, opening her eyes and glaring at Minato. "I can take it." She reiterated, before smirking. "And don't worry about giving the Uchiha too much power, not like I was ever someone they could control anyway."

Minato gave her a look for a few more moments before shaking his head, a small smile on his lips. "I suppose not." Snatching a flame-emblazoned haori up, he regarded one of his Kunai before muttering to himself. "Akari." Said girl snapped to attention, her eyes widening when he pressed a very special Kunai into her hands. "I want you to promise me that...no matter what, you'll look after Naruto." It was Akari's turn to give Minato a searching gaze.

"Minato-sama...I-" He cut her off by grabbing a few more Kunai and taking ahold of her arm again, appearing in a forest and using a summoning technique to bring forth an altar. Without a word Akari hopped up onto it, simultaneously unsealing several Fuinjutsu tools before laying down and baring her body, biting her lip to focus on as she ignored the caustic Chakra infesting the area.

Taking up a brush, Minato looked directly at Akari, his eyes softening for a moment. "For what it's worth...I'm sorry." Akari just shrugged, a grin on her lips.

"Hey, it was either this, or you'd have to reseal it in Kushina or, even worse, into your son. Fuck if I'm letting that happen." With a sigh, Minato dipped his brush into the ink and got to work, quickly inscribing a large portion of the seal onto Akari as she worked to fill in the extra parts, the pair working in silence. When the seal was completed, Minato pressed his Chakra into the centre of it to compress it into the Eight-Trigrams Seal form, binding the two Four Symbols seals together with a swirl before stepping back and wiping his brow.

"Minato-sama." Akari's voice called out to him, and he stopped himself from forming a seal as Akari gave him a smile. "It was an honour to have served under you. I just...wish it could have been for longer." Minato gave a sad smile back, clasping his hands together into the Snake seal and flipping through the rest of the hand seals, before clapping loudly and finishing the Seal.

"Shiki Fujin!" He called out, bidding the Shinigami to appear. Just in time as well, as the Kyuubi no Kitsune had come across their clearing, roaring its fury out at the pair. Before it could do anything, it shrunk before Akari's eyes, leading her to recall exactly what Minato was doing. Without a warning, the beast lunged a claw forwards, momentarily startling it when his claw had no effect on Minato, who was already in the Shinigami's grasp.

As the beast reared back to instead target Akari, the seal on her body activated, rendering the beast down into nothing but formless Chakra and taking it within itself. Clenching her jaw, Akari tried to keep herself from screaming, watching at the Chakra flowed into her seal like a river. A few moments into the sealing, Akari's resolve wavered, and she let her screams run out as the pain began to overwhelm her, writhing on the altar as the pervasive Chakra flooded through her Chakra coils and into the seal.

After what felt like years but was actually only moments, the stream of Chakra ebbed off, leaving Akari panting and sorer than the one time Might Guy managed to get her to do an exercise routine with him. Sure, he was only 14 or 15ish, but the kid was still a damn fitness nut. With a groan, Akari rolled over slightly to see the surprised visage of none other than Hiruzen Sarutobi. "H-hiruzen-sama...he did it." She murmured, her eyes catching the prone and unmoving form of Minato.

"He stopped the Kitsune."

* * *

The aftermath of the attack was...pretty ruthless.

Numerous Shinobi lost their lives when the Bijuudama that the Kyuubi spat across Konoha chewed through the village. It could have been far, far worse, but many still lost their lives in that single attack. Among the casualties was Kushina Uzumaki, leaving behind a just-born child with her chosen protector, the Crimson Medic. Officially, she died during child-birth as a result of the stress from the Kyuubi's malicious Chakra.

After being re-instated following the death of the Yondaime Hokage, Hiruzen was about to reveal his heritage, but Akari quickly put a stop to that. "Hiruzen-sama, let me make one thing clear. The Yondaime had enemies. I don't want those enemies coming after me or Naruto because you want him acknowledged him as the Yondaime's son. At least wait until he's strong enough to fend for himself."

To even the scales, Akari told him that he could reveal Akari's Jinchuriki status, not that it'd remain secret anyway. Outside of Hiruzen and the ANBU he was with, three Uchiha and seven Hyuuga saw the seal on Akari's body, as well as several dozen regular Shinobi. Not even a day later and that information was presumably spread to at least a few hundred villagers, so it really didn't matter.

Besides, Akari was known throughout the village for having saved many Shinobi during the final pitched battle of the Third War, single-handedly ending that fight with her unique Jutsu. Certainly, some would come to resent her for carrying the creature which took their friends and family away, but far more remembered just what she had done.

It helped, even if it absolutely fucking infuriated her, that the Konoha Hospital had accidentally leaked information that she was the one to develop the Golan seal responsible for giving vision back to so many Shinobi. Many of those sat on the fence about Akari found themselves unable to remain that way after finding out that not only did she fight for them and heal them on the battlefield, she even aided those who were once believed to never be capable of being Shinobi ever again.

But, it must be said, she could REALLY do without all the fucking betrothal proposals. Two from the Hyuuga (Both branch and main house), one from the Nara, Inuzuka, and there was even one from the Kurama clan, who were renowned Genjutsu users. It seemed that ever since her sudden Jinchuriki status and the fact she has now done three overwhelmingly positive actions in aiding Konoha, everybody wanted a piece of the pie.

All except her. She didn't want to even consider marriage and promptly ignored all the bullshit being spewed. It ranged from 'You have a duty to your clan to continue your lineage.' all the way to 'Shinobi don't live long enough to spend so long undecided over such a thing.'

The worst part was that her own mother seemed on-board with the whole damn thing, even going so far as to encourage Akari to meet with a few of the proposed bachelors. Fortunately, Sei was entirely supportive of Akari ignoring those proposals for as long as she wished, and with their combined stance they managed to stop their mother from making any more 'requests' of Akari. She still gave her pointed looks and murmurs about how she wanted grandchildren, but that was easy to ignore.

Still, within that vein, Sei managed to pick himself up a girl, to which Akari teased with no end, which he took in stride. A certain redhead called Kina. She didn't have a family name, as she was a nameless orphan from the war, but Sei was absolutely smitten with her, which was sweet. The pair were practically made for each other, since they both loved teaching, they were both soft at home but could be real menaces if someone threatened them, and they were both just adorable together.

Kina wasn't a Kunoichi, and it was clear that she was slightly uncomfortable with all the knives and equipment in the house, but the fact she was open-minded about the whole thing earned her a thousand points in Akari's book. It helped that she was an absolute gem. Even though she had no idea how exactly to handle Ninja equipment she was still determined to help out around the house whenever she could.

Not that Akari lived there any more. It was decided that as she was taking guardianship over Naruto, which was a whole other barrel of bullshit to look at, she should get her own apartment. Her past missions and the support of the Sandaime meant she could choose wherever she wanted. The biggest issue was finding somewhere she was actually comfortable.

Not that the apartments she visited didn't look comfortable, they did, but it was the other occupants that threw Akari off. The Shinobi were pretty open-minded about her, but since the civilians had to rely on second-hand gossip, well...negative gossip travels far easier than positive, so many heard of her as some kind of monster, refusing to give her the time of day and even openly glaring at her in the streets.

While out in public Akari could brush it off, she didn't want to live in an apartment block where a lot of the other occupants saw her as the embodiment of evil. This led her to a small apartment above a shop in between the Nara and Akimichi compounds, a short walk from the Mission office and hospital. It had two bedrooms, a small kitchen and sitting room, and a bathroom. For all intents and purposes, it was a small apartment, but Akari really didn't need bigger.

The rent wasn't too high, the location was rock-solid, the place was big enough for her and Naruto to live comfortably, and the neighbours either didn't care about her or actively thought positively about her. Being above a shop, which itself was on a market street, also made getting groceries an absolute snap. The only problem was that because the Uchiha compound was on the other side of Konoha, whenever she had to go out for missions, she'd have to drag her mother or brother across half of Konoha so they could look after him.

**Quest Completed**

**Survive.**

**Objective:**

**Survive the night - Completed.**

**Reward: . . . Jinchuriki Status, guardianship of Uzumaki Naruto.**

Then there was that. The error was concealing the fact she was due to become a Jinchuriki, which was weird. Presumably, that event could have gone several ways. Though, as Akari thought about it, she kinda resented the Game for calling becoming a goddamn human sacrifice a 'reward'. If anything it was a fucking consolation prize. The same for the guardianship of Naruto, it was really weird considering she had to expressly demand of Hiruzen that she be his guardian, it wasn't something just handed to her by the game.

Hiruzen wanted him to go to an orphanage, and only the fact that Kushina had made Akari Naruto's godmother, something which managed to make the man almost, ALMOST, drop his pipe, stopped that from happening. Not that Akari was particularly enthused about becoming a guardian at fucking twelve. Then again, ever since she got a Genin headband she was legally considered an adult, and she did have a bit of an advantage with the whole being far older than she appeared, so she supposed she was the best person for it to happen to.

Didn't make it any less awkward having to look after a baby. She spent quite a few nights frantically trying to look after the brat, and many nights then spent reading up on pretty much everything from how to feed him, which her past knowledge helped with a little, to bathing him and changing him.

Of course, as a Tokubetsu Jonin she still had a job to do, and so she had to feel her heart break every time she had to leave Naruto with her brother or mother. Watching him make grabby hands at her, then start bawling when she left his sight was almost too much for Akari, but she still did her job, even if she hated having to leave him so often. After the first few times she disappeared it seemed he realized that she was going to come back and stopped crying his eyes out, but he definitely wasn't happy with her.

Every time she came back and held him, he wouldn't let go of her for hours, which was sweet, and would often fall asleep with his hands still clenched on her scarf-hood. One of his favourite things to see was Akari's 'magic tricks' where she used the Game to make things disappear and re-appear before his eyes. He was the only one she ever let see those things, mostly because he was so young he wouldn't remember it, but seeing the look in his eyes as he watched those objects vanish and re-appear was worth the moon to Akari.

And, before she knew it, a year had passed. Then two. And Konoha healed from the damage.

* * *

**...I'm going to hate myself so much next chapter. **

**There's gonna be timeskips and whatnot, so be ready for that. Anyways, here's Akari's status, and what exactly you can expect from her new...tenant:**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 31**

**Age: 12**

**Experience: 17743/31000**

**To Next Level: 12257**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 3200 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 540/m - 9/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 2000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 300/m - 5/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 33**

**Vitality - 27**

**Endurance - 20**

**Intelligence - 20**

**Agility - 40**

**Wisdom - 15**

**Luck - 25**

**Perks:**

**Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed Fox - You now contain the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Can call upon Bijuu Chakra when needed to fight. Will turn your body more animalistic (when in use); Claws, Tails, Ears, Eyes will become similar to the Kyuubi. Potential to be ostracized by your village. Will become hunted by certain elements in future for your tenant. Mindspace Technique granted.**

**Techniques:**

**Mindspace - The presence of the Kyuubi within your seal has granted you the ability to enter your own mind. Experience earned within the Mindspace is reduced by 100%. Time is dilated by a factor of 100 within Mindspace. You may converse with the Kyuubi no Kitsune within your Mindspace. This action is recommended. No Chakra cost.**

**Proficiencies:**

**Fuinjutsu - Sealing arts. The practice of using ink to achieve your goals. - Level 61 - 82.4%**

**Calligraphy - Brush-stroke writing, typically used in conjunction with Fuinjutsu. - Level 21 - 11.7%**


	10. Chapter 10

**Dammit!**

**Not even a full year and we already have to move again, bleh. People who own this place are selling, so chances are me and mine have to bugger off to some other place in February, hooray!**

**...I liked this place dammit, it was comfy. Oh well. Expect stories to get a bit hectic around Jan/Feb/May time, and I might sometimes get busy clearing out the place and miss my 5PM alarm, so stories will possibly come out late, sawwy.**

**This chapter is gonna have a bunch of time-skips, most of the line-breaks will denote a decently-sized skip in time.**

**ALSO! Akari is getting her Right Eye 'updated', because Kami no Shinpan fucking sucks and it was only meant as a placeholder. Sorry if any of you thought it was a decent idea (*Snorts* Yeah right, it fucking sucked, I know), but the Game is going to update it.**

_**Chapter 10**_

* * *

**_"So, you finally came."_**

Akari rolled her eyes at the dramatic voice, squinting up at the narrowed red eyes glaring down at her. "Yeah yeah, whatever. So, enjoying your stay at Hotel la Akari?" She waved a hand at the pretty bland area the Kitsune was contained within. Between looking after Naruto, doing missions as a Tokubetsu Jonin, and generally living, she completely forgot to check out the Mindscape jutsu she received from becoming a Jinchuriki. To be perfectly honest with herself, she entirely forgot she even was a Jinchuriki, because the seal on her body vanished and would only appear when channelling Chakra, and said seal was written so Chakra from the Kyuubi could only be drawn when she wanted it.

_**"Hmph. You are not the first human to contain me, and if I have any say you most certainly shall be the last. Pitiful. Weak and greedy, all of you."**_ The giant fox turned away from Akari, plodding off to the back of the sewer-like seal and curling up. With a drawn-out sigh, Akari walked up the side of the giant gate holding the fox back and observed the seal with a keen eye, nodding to herself.

"Well, it looks to be in order. Soo~" She slid between the bars of the seal, wandering up onto the ceiling of the cell and looking down at the surprised eyes of the giant fox."-this place is pretty dreary. I'm sorry I didn't pop in earlier to check all this out. I mean, sure, you killed a lot of people, but I guess if I got trapped in a seal like that for however long then released and given a chance for revenge I'd damn well take it. I wish you didn't kill Kushina and Minato during it, but whatever." Akari then sat down, crossing her legs and closing her eyes.

The Kitsune watched her warily, yipping in surprise when the floor started shifting beneath him. _**"Human, what are you-"**_ He began demanding, only to snap his mouth shut when he saw the sewer he'd grown accustomed to changing, becoming a massive Minka home. Feeling something shift under his feet, he looked down to see a comparatively standard-sized tatami mat beneath his paws, and when he looked back up, the home was complete, a pretty close imitation to a standard home.

Looking up at the ceiling, Kurama narrowed his eyes at Akari, who just rubbed one of her closed eyes and made to stand up but quickly darting over to a wall, sliding down it and landing on the floor where she fell onto her knees and pressed her back against the wall, exhaling loudly. "Remind me to never just do something like that on a whim, eh Kyuubi?" The fox bristled at her words, and Akari winced, quickly raising her hands. "Sorry if that sounded bad, I uh...I don't really know what to call you. I mean, Bijuu sounds so impersonal, so I figured Kyuubi was the next best thing...was I wrong?"

The fox glared at her for a moment before huffing. _**"It matters not. Know this, human. A trivial thing like-"**_ He snorted as he looked around the Minka. _**"-like this does not matter to me. This changes nothing between us."**_ He said haughtily, walking away from Akari and approaching one of the massive sliding doors. He pressed it open with his nose and began wandering around the home, leaving Akari in the room with the seal-gate, a smile on her lips.

"It matters to me though."

* * *

"Naruto, no!"

Akari quickly lunged forward and caught Naruto before he could tumble off the table and onto the floor. How he got up there was a goddamn mystery, which was joined by how he got out of his playpen without Akari, a goddamn Tokubetsu Jonin, noticing. With a put-upon sigh, Akari placed him back into his pen, patting his head and smirking. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you?" He made vague grabby motions towards Akari, and with a roll of her eyes she obliged the boy, lifting him up and planting him on her hip. "What's up Buster?"

"aa'sa." Akari shifted him in her arms, looking at Naruto's face with a perplexed gaze. Naruto scrunched his face up and burbled again. "aa-san."

"Oh nonono, don't you dare, you're not allowed." Akari quickly shook her head, frowning when Naruto giggled.

"Kaa-san." He chirped, giggling and burbling. Akari, meanwhile, was stood there with her arms almost going limp, just looking at the shifting and giggling infant in her arms. "Kaa-san!" Yelling, Naruto clapped his hands together, giggling up at Akari.

"Naruto~" She whined. "I'm not-...ugh, damn it. Whatever, I'll just hammer that in your head when you're older." How exactly he learned how to say Kaa-san was a mystery, though Akari blamed her mother. She had gone on three B-Rank missions since gaining ownership of the little ball of energy known as Naruto, and each time had to leave the infant with her mother.

Considering she had never spoken those words around him, evidently her own mother had taught him to say it. Not that Akari didn't think Naruto was just the most adorable thing ever, he was, no doubt about it. The problem was that Akari just went...wrong, having Naruto address her as his mother. But she could quite happily just wait until he was old enough to know better, then explain to him that she wasn't his mother.

"Kaa-san!"

* * *

"Uhh, okay then?"

Akari took the little postcard-sized piece of paper from the Hokage with a frown. "So uhh, what actually is this?" Hiruzen puffed on his pipe for a few moments before gesturing towards Akari's hand.

"That is a piece of Chakra paper. I was informed you do not know what your chakra nature is, a fault of mine for not realizing that as you have no jonin-sensei to teach you, this kind of thing slips through the cracks, and holds you back from becoming a full Jonin. Now then, if you would please direct your Chakra through the paper, it shall react in a certain way and dictate your Chakra Nature."

Humming, Akari quickly reached within herself for her Chakra, directing the energy to her fingers and then out into the paper. Said paper crinkled up quickly in her fingers, then with a whoosh burnt itself to a cinder, singing Akari's fingers slightly and making her yelp, dropping the paper quickly. "Could have warned me that might happen." She said without much heat, as her natural health regeneration already fixed the damage, leaving her fingers slightly stained in soot but with no actual injury.

"Well, that's certainly interesting." Hiruzen muttered, puffing his pipe again. "Twin Chakra nature of Lightning and Fire. Not unheard of, but not common. Well, congratulations are in order I suppose." Akari gave the Hokage a smile and bowed.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama.

* * *

**Update Log v174**

**Popular consensus amongst the development staff has been strongly favouring the changing of your Right Eye Sharingan Ability. This was decided based on the utility of the ability being extremely situational and all but useless to your current play-style. This change is optional, but if accepted, you shall lose the Kami no Shinpan technique, and gain a new ability, one selected by the development team and favoured by the Project Head. Your Kami no Te ability has been decidedly accepted amongst the team, and as such shall be left alone regardless of choice. However, abilities shall be renamed from Kami to Megami (God to Goddess) in lieu of player gender.**

**BEWARE! You are fortunate to have never used Kami no Shinpan around other Shinobi, but some may be perceptive enough to note your eye pattern has changed. This may draw highly-unfavourable attention!**

**Accept? Y/N.**

Blinking, Akari stopped on the tree branch she just hopped onto and re-read the message a few times. She agreed that her right eye was pretty damn useless, but to be allowed to just change it like that was pretty weird. Annoyingly enough she was not being told exactly what she was going to be getting, but considering they were swapping her eye out because they decided it wasn't even remotely useful to her, which was a sentiment she agreed with, it was probably an ability she would find useful. Mentally clicking the yes option, she felt her right eye leak some kind of liquid, and reached a hand up to find it bleeding slightly.

With a shrug, she dabbed away the blood with the cloth underside of her forearm protector and opened her menu, her eyes widening as she read the ability she received.

**Right Eye: Megami no Mon (Goddess's Gate) - This technique will summon forth a corporeal spectre from the Pure Lands to fight or act on your behalf. To use, the name of the Spectre must be invoked, and the face of the summoned one must be in Mind's Eye. Spectre will have 2x Player's Chakra amount, and will drain Chakra at 1% per minute. Can use all original techniques of Spectre, but will use Chakra to fuel them, leading to a faster disappearance. Will follow all orders of Summoner, and cannot be affected by Genjutsu or compulsion techniques. Can be granted free will to act autonomously, but will mean Spectre can attempt to use loopholes in orders to hinder summoner if they so wish. Usage - 25% of total Chakra pool, will immobilize Summoner for 5 second duration whilst Spectre is called forth.**

_**ABILITY CAN ONLY BE USED THREE TIMES IN 24 HOURS, ONCE EVERY 8 HOURS! After dismissal, Spectres will be placed on cooldown before they can be used again. This cooldown will be determined based on certain factors.**_

"Oh...holy shit." Akari muttered, reading the new technique through and raising a hand to her eye. That was...huge. With a hum, she pictured a C-rank bounty she handed in a few days ago. "Nagusa Bunraken." She muttered after forming the hand-signs for the Jutsu. It was pretty trippy to think about the fact that her mind essentially just learned those signs by magic, but Akari found she could avoid a nasty migraine if she just never thought of it.

With a puff of smoke, a slightly ethereal bandit found himself stood in front of Akari, his eyes glazed over slightly.

**Grant Spectre Free Will? Y/N.**

Akari selected the No option, pretty confident that if she gave a bandit that only a few days ago she killed free will, he would do everything in his power to screw her over. Above his head was a big blue bar which was slowly draining, a percentage beside it. "Hmm, so that's how much Chakra he has. Ahh, but he's only a C-rank, he won't know any Jutsu..."

The Uchiha girl put her hand under her chin, observing the bandit as he stood perfectly motionless. "Climb that tree." She stated plainly, pointing a thumb at the tree behind her. The bandit wordlessly strode over to the tree and began...stabbing his hands into the tree-trunk to make his own hand-holds, wrenching himself straight up the tree and reaching almost to the very top. Said top then snapped under his weight sending him plummeting down to the ground. "Right." She said when he hit the floor with a loud thump. "Need to be more specific than that with orders I guess."

Watching his body contorting and snapping back into place both confused and intrigued Akari. She knelt down beside him and used her Mystical Palm jutsu to observe his body, watching through her Jutsu as his bones snapped back into place, muscles knitted together and organs were re-arranged. She could practically feel the Chakra within him draining itself to fuel this process, but considering the amount he now contained, it was only a few percentage points.

As he lunged back up and approached the tree, Akari sighed. "Stop." She then froze for a moment before putting a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter. He was mid-step when she said stop, and was now frozen in place, desperately trying to hold his position. "Oh put your fucking foot down. Uhh, stand at ease." He fell into a relaxed stance, still ready but not rigid like he was before.

Poking his shoulder, Akari frowned. It was weird to know that not three days past she was the one to run the man in front of her through with her knives then cut his head off, yet now an ethereal version of him stood before her, and under her command. "Okay, how about~..." She trailed off, eyes glazing slightly as she pondered what to do. "Hmm, I dunno, jump on one foot, pat your head and rub your belly clock-wise?"

Seeing the man as he hopped about, patting his head and rubbing his belly was rather amusing, but it also answered a good question. As long as it was physically possible to do, he would follow her orders. Not once did it start accidentally start rubbing his head or patting his belly, which meant it was likely that the command stopped his mind from messing with itself and causing confusion.

Akari leaned back and stretched her arms out, muttering quietly. "Okay, you can stop that now." She barely spoke, not even enough for a whisper, yet the Spectre followed the command and stood at attention again. "Hmm." Akari attempted to give the Spectre a command mentally, sounding out the words in her head, but the bandit didn't move an inch. She then mimicked the way the words would be made using her lips, and still no dice.

"So, I have to actually vocalize it, but as long as it generates some amount of noise it counts?" The Game was not particularly forthcoming with the information, but Akari was used to that after the years she'd spent in her new world. "Well, whatever." She glanced up at the bar above his head, noting that about ten percent had gone away. "Kai." She called, putting her hands into a seal and making the man disappear.

She didn't get any memories, nor an influx of Chakra, he just vanished as though he was never there, a swiftly-fading white mist being the only evidence the bandit was ever in existence. Flipping through seals again, Akari called his name again, but an error sound occurred. Looking at her status screen, a new tag had appeared.

**Nagusa Bunraken - Cooldown: 5:59:27**

"So, after summoning, it's a 6-hour cooldown from dismissal for him. Makes sense I guess." She shrugged, jogging up the side of a tree onto a branch and crouching down, opening her World Map and figuring out which direction she had to head in. At the moment she was on a B-rank hunting mission, trying to track down and eliminate a pair of Missing-nin Bandits who were harassing merchants in the Land of Fire. The two nin were only Chunin-level, so it wasn't a particularly dangerous mission, but she still had to remain on guard, as the pair made their camp somewhere around the border between Fire and Grass country, which still occasionally saw small-scale skirmishing between Konoha-nin and 'unidentifiable Shinobi'.

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knew it was Iwa, but they hid behind the technicality that nobody actually knew for certain that it wasn't another village harassing Konoha and trying to incite a war between the two recovering villages. Between the Kyuubi attack and the Third War, Konoha wasn't in a position to freely start up yet another war, so they had to just grit their teeth and keep up appearances.

Nodding her head, Akari closed her map down and started hopping through trees, leaping from branch to branch and falling into her own unique form of tree-flitting. Konoha-nin usually just jumped from branch top to branch top, but Akari much preferred a more...flexible way of travel. Swan-diving off a high branch, she extended her arms out and wrapped them onto another branch, swinging herself and using her momentum to fly across the forest. She then tipped back and hooked her knees around another branch, swinging around then releasing to fly upwards and grab another branch, hoisting herself up onto it before leaping off again.

Rather than simply landing on branches then jumping again, she moved far more unpredictably, something which made her practically impossible to ambush, as nobody ever knew which way she was going to go next. At one moment she would simply be flying straight, then she'd loop over and around a branch going upwards, then jumping from that to drop down low, and never really staying on a single level.

That was probably the reason why she never got a team, her way of travelling was far too unorthodox. Well, it made Akari's job easier.

* * *

"Shh, I heard something."

One of the two Missing-nin, Jiyara if she remembered correctly, just waited a moment before he rolled his eyes and snorted. "Yeah right. Listen Kanza, the only things out here other than us are the fucking bugs." The other nin, Kanza apparently, glared at his partner a moment before he swept his gaze across the forest again and huffed.

"Just keep your ears peeled dumbass." Silently, Akari pulled out her Opinel knives, silently clicking them into place and reversing them in her hands. Shuffling across the branch she was crouched atop, she waited for just the right moment, before...there!

Flicking her wrists, she sent both knives down towards her targets. The more suspicious Shinobi of the pair heard the near-silent sound of the blades slicing through the air just in time and managed to avoid the lethal attack, instead getting a knife embedded into his shoulder. His partner hadn't reacted to the sound at all, and the knife embedded itself into his Brachiocephalic artery, the arterial spurt being strong enough to actually push the blade back out of his throat and pour his blood out onto the forest floor. He passed out within moments, death from Exsanguination all but assured.

With a nonchalant hum, Akari activated the seals on her armguards, dropping her twin warrior knives into her waiting hands and grinning. "Well good evening there Kanza." The bandit looked between her and the rapidly bleeding-out figure of his partner. "Oh don't bother, he's going to die from blood loss within minutes if not seconds. You know, pissing off Konoha? Not a good idea." The bandit cursed under his breath and formed several hand seals.

With her Sharingan active Akari knew her Game was going to copy it, and thus ignored the flashing little box on the side of her vision, instead lunging forwards right as he yelled out "Doton: Rokkotoreiru!". A column of rocks burst out of the ground in a straight line towards Akari, so she rolled to the left and dropped the warrior knife in her left hand. Her arm-seals detected the falling weapon and re-sealed it into her armguard, leaving her hand free to snatch several Senbon out of her leg-brace, flinging them towards her opponent.

The man proved he was at least somewhat trained when he rolled to his right, putting the Doton rocks between him and Akari, cutting off line of sight as he flew through several more hand seals. Before he could finish Akari emerged from the ground beneath his feet, latching a hand onto both his ankles before she dragged him down into the earth.

Popping up in front of him, she quickly kicked the side of his head harshly to discombobulate him. The way she'd trapped him meant he couldn't form the hand seals required for the Hiding Like a Mole Technique to activate, but if he knew how to do one-handed seals he could easily escape. Fortunately enough the bounty for the two nin was only for dead, no bonus for keeping them alive, so she took her warrior knife to his throat and cleanly severed his head, nipping away from the corpse to avoid the blood as she dumped her evidence into a storage scroll.

Quickly severing the other missing-nin's head and dropping it into the same scroll, Akari stretched her arms above her head and yawned. A twig snapped somewhere nearby, but Akari ignored it as she continued her stretch, cracking her back before rolling up the scroll on the floor and popping it into her satchel. With a final casual glance around, she wandered into the treeline and hopped up onto a branch, flitting a little ways away before circling around and coming around behind the area the twig broke in.

A shock of red hair was visible hiding behind one of the trees, with two more figures beside the red-haired one, leading Akari to stifle her snort of laughter. Bright red hair, in a green forest? Did that person really have no idea of what a bloody stupid idea that was? Akari's own hair was also red, but closer to black than red, so it was acceptable. Rolling her eyes, Akari approached the trio, settling down within hearing range and listening to their conversation. "-ould go and tell sensei, not you."

So, they were a genin-team with a sensei nearby? Resisting the urge to hum nonchalantly, Akari hooked her knees on the branch she was on and swung down, dangling upside-down about thirty meters from the three genin and swinging back and forth, casually listening as they argued about who should go and find their jonin-sensei. "I get that, but at the same time, fuck you." Akari couldn't help it, she snorted. Fortunately enough the three genin were loud enough that they didn't hear her.

They went back and forth a few times, and it seems they decided that the red-head and the one stood to her right were going to stick around, while the one on the left was going to go and find their sensei. As he stood up from his crouch and turned around, he first spotted her dangling faded-red hair. Then he looked up and saw her casual face. "Wah?!" Was his eloquent response. Akari raised...or rather lowered an arm and waved at the flabbergasted Genin.

"Yo." The two other genin had their attentions drawn by his sudden yell and turned to also see Akari. She swung herself around and released her knees from the tree, dropping to the floor and raising a hand. "Peace. So, what brings you guys out into Hi no Kuni?" The three genin looked pretty flabbergasted, but the one who was going to head for their sensei recovered and pointed a finger.

"You mean what are you doing in Kusa no Kuni?" Akari tilted her head and surreptitiously opened her game map. It quite clearly designated them as a dozen or so miles into Hi no Kuni.

"Uhh, don't want to alarm you but you're about...10, maybe 15 miles from the border. Those two missing-nin were set up in Fire Country lands, not Grass Country. So, I'll ask again." Akari let her face darken a little, with a small amount of killing intent in her voice. "What are you three doing in Hi no Kuni?" To his credit, the lead genin only looked a little uncomfortable, but his two companions were significantly worse off.

The genin narrowed his eyes at Akari, before his face morphed into an apologetic one, his eyes looking over her shoulder. Akari sensed another Chakra signature approaching from behind her, and she rolled her head around to look at who was presumably their jonin-sensei. "Yo." She repeated her greeting.

"Hmph. You three." He growled out. "Back to Kusagakure, now." The three genin looked between Akari and their sensei a few times before scampering off into the forest. Akari held the mans firm gaze for a while, watching out of the corner of her eye as one of the three genin, the redhead, looked back briefly before running off. A few more moments passed before his face softened and he bowed to Akari. "My apologies Akari-chan, my team meant no intrusion, and I promise a firm punishment shall befall them for this transgression."

With a shrug, Akari gave the man a smile. "It's fine, I'm guessing they got lost and managed to wander past the border?" The man nodded.

"Yeah, they were meant to be hunting down a single goddamn bandit, but I got caught up dealing with a problem and lost track of them. By the time I'd found them, well...as you can see, they definitely move fast, but thoughtlessly. I hope my genin didn't offend you with his accusation?" Akari waved the Shinobi's concerns off.

"Nah, it's fine. I'll have to report this you know, but considering it was just a team of Genin and they weren't able to see anything important, Kusa can expect no retaliation for this border transgression." Akari gave the man a firm look for a few seconds before the pair chuckled. "It's nice to see ya Barava." Akari stuck her fist out, bumping it against the Kusa-nin's.

"You too Akari. So, how's your little tyke?"

* * *

"Argh, you cunt!"

With a yell, Akari ripped the Senbon out of her palm, hurling them back twice as hard at the bastard who stuck them in her, gritting her teeth as she tried to flex her hand. The muscles which would normally clench her fingers around were stabbed through cleanly and refused to close, leaving her with one hand to use. With a growl, she twitched her right hand and dropped a Bowie Knife into it. Apparently her opponent recognized her now-signature weaponry because his eyes widened dramatically as he looked between her dark crimson hair and her knife.

Guarding her wounded hand with her leg, she crooked her fingers as much as she could, dropping Senbon between the gaps using her seals and catching them between her fingers, all whilst keeping eye contact with her enemy. As he flung a brace of Senbon at her, Akari responded in kind, flicking her left hand up and releasing the Senbon in a shotgun pattern.

The sharp instruments smashed together, with Akari's being too few to stop several from slipping past and almost hitting Akari, one even bouncing off her forearm guard. Akari used the moments where the weapons were in midair efficiently, powering forward with her Bowie knife held before herself, deflecting a hastily-tossed Kunai and closing on her opponent, who wielded another Kunai and watched her with wary eyes.

Swinging her blade up towards his hip, she found her knife deflected by the Kunai, with the nin then stepping into her guard and attempting to stab her from close-range. Unfortunately for him, Akari used the short time between parry and step to bring her arm around and deflect his attempted stab with her forearm protector, pushing the Kunai away which opened him up for a side-long elbow strike to the jaw. She then brought her knife across her chest into a reverse raised swipe, catching him on the jaw with the guard which had the added benefit of tilting the blade fiercely, stabbing straight into his chest and sliding across his ribs, before slipping up high enough to go beyond his ribs and straight into his vulnerable trachea.

Akari wasted no time in plunging the large blade straight downwards into his rib-cage, slicing easily through the veins and arteries in the upper areas of his torso. A sharp pain in her side drew her attention to the man's other hand, where a second Kunai was now embedded deeply in her external oblique muscles. With a grunt, Akari yanked her knife from the mans body and sliced easily through his forearm, stopping him from making any other attempts to injure her with the Kunai.

Charging her arm with Chakra to give herself a boost, Akari gave the man a solid shove to the face, forcing him away from her and into a sprawled heap on the floor. She tapped on the Kunai gently, frowning. It was firmly stuck within her muscles, presumably cutting into her descending colon. Akari formed the seal for the Mystical Palm Jutsu, quickly healing the muscle damage on her left hand then switching her hands over so her left hand was the one coated in healing Chakra.

Gritting her teeth, Akari yanked the Kunai out with a single smooth motion, immediately jabbing her fingers into the wound to seal her colon up to stop any biological waste from escaping into her body and causing nasty infections. She could have done it from outside without having the lovely experience of putting her fingers into the wound, but it was safest to ensure that the wound closed up properly. Of course, it was likely the Game would just give her a negative status effect she could fix easily and call it a day, but it was better safe than sorry.

As the Kunai wound sealed up, Akari took a glance at her event log and quirked her lips to the side.

**-471 HP. 3829/4300 HP Remaining.**

Being stabbed in the side was one point off from being the same damage as having her hand cut off below the wrist. But, whereas before that was a third of her entire health pool, now she could take enough damage to have her hand cut off and sewn back on multiple times without dying. Akari still wasn't quite sure exactly how it was meant to work, since people she met didn't seem to have stats or a health bar, they simply had levels which seemed to serve for nothing more than to give her a vague idea of what they were capable of.

Shrugging to herself, Akari cut off the head of her opponent, a habit more than any knowledge of whether he had a bounty of not, before noticing the bingo book in his pockets and humming. She debated with herself for a moment before throwing her hands up and taking the booklet, stuffing it into a pocket and promptly forgetting about it. She knew she had a bingo book entry, her brother even showed her the one Iwa had for her a few years ago, but she hadn't had the chance to check up on her entry in a long time.

With a smile on her lips, Akari continued her journey home, her pseudo-son and her family on her mind. It had been a few weeks since she'd actually been back in Konoha, so since her mission would be too long she'd had to leave Naruto in the tender mercies of her loving mother. It was always adorable coming back and immediately being latched onto by a limpet-like Naruto, who would mutter grand tales about the demon in disguise which was Uchiha Kana. In a way, Akari agreed with Naruto, Kana was a bit of a mean task-master when she wanted to be.

Retired Kunoichi or not, the woman could throw a mean Kunai.

* * *

"Seriously Naruto, I'm not gonna tell you again."

Naruto pouted at Akari from his place on the table, folding his arms up. "But Kaa-san, I wanna!" Akari gave him an arm-cross of her own, frowning at him.

"And I said no. Remember that promise we made?" Naruto scrunched his face up, and Akari took that opportunity to loop her arms under his armpits, lifting him up and holding him to her side, one hand under his knees while the other supported his back. "As soon as you hit 8 years old you can apply for the Academy, but not a day sooner." She left one arm underneath him as she ruffled his hair, resisting the urge to coo when he hugged her neck.

"Promise me again?" He said in a quiet voice, his face buried under her chin. She kissed the top of his head, burying her nose in his hair.

"I promise cub."

* * *

**That interaction between Akari and Barava just makes me squee, and I have no fucking idea why. I love it. It's really weird. I also love Akari interacting with Naruto. And yes, I skipped his baby years, because fuck trying to write that.**

**In total, 3 years have passed, Naruto is old enough to talk, Akari has levelled up 16 times thanks to the fact no massively world-changing quests have occurred, and she's how scarily tough. Like, she could get her hand cut off...let me calculate this...13 times and still be alive. On the fourteenth she'd go poof though.**

**In those three years though, she's only learned a few techniques, because she's not really one for Ninjutsu fighting, it's just far too different from how her old world worked. Knife-fighting was something she could handle, but launching fireballs and wind shurikens? No dice.**

**She's also now only just found out her Chakra Nature. Props to anyone who figured out why her Chakra was Orange to the Golan-vision that Sei has when he looks upon her. Fire Nature is marked as Red, Lightning as Yellow, so the two natures together mix to become Orange.**

**But...what does the white binding surrounding her Chakra mean?**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 47**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 43277/47000**

**To Next Level: 3723**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 50**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**

_**Techniques:**_

**Fire Release: Flame Bullet - This Jutsu pools oil within the user's mouth, before firing then ignites said liquid in a bullet shape. Usage - 25CP/bullet.**

**Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder - By moulding Lightning-nature Chakra into your hands, you can release varying powers of electricity to stun or even kill your opponents. Usage - 25CP/s for stun, 75CP/s for lethal.**

**Earth Release: Rock Trail - This Jutsu spikes out a series of large rocks from the ground in a stream towards your target. Cost is dictated by distance between user and target. Usage - 25CP/meter.**


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

* * *

**You're received...: A CranBo Nutrient Bar! - Recovers 35Hp on usage.**

The rolling table...was a fucking joke.

Akari hadn't forgotten about it, she just didn't deign to think the trash she got was worth even thinking about. Sure, it could be used in some fashion, but seriously...almost all the stuff she got was either one use, or absurdly specific. A crappy nutrient bar that gave her 0.5% of her health back. A set of glasses with funky lenses which she couldn't see out of properly. A scuffed-up motorcycle helmet. The only item she received that was even vaguely useful was called "The Returning Pebble." A pebble, about as big as her thumb, which would return to her inventory after hitting a few surfaces and settling.

Of course, she could easily just grab a few pebbles from the floor and toss those, but it still had a vague kind of usefulness to it. As she raised her hand to flip her inventory, or more specifically the roulette symbol that was her Rolling Table item, off, a knock at her door had her quickly putting her hand back down and clearing her throat. "Yeah?"

Out of the people she expected to suddenly come into her apartment, Sarutobi Hiruzen was most certainly not one of them. To be frank with herself, she thought it was Naruto coming to ask her some inane question, like 'How much ramen can I have to eat tonight?' or some such nonsense. "H-hokage-sama. Uhh, welcome, I guess. Please, come sit down." She stood and waved a hand at her chair, smiling somewhat awkwardly at the man as he made his way to the chair, only sitting when he gestured for her to do so.

"Please, sit. How has life been treating you Akari-chan? I must confess I meant to make some time to speak with you after our last...discussion, but my duties forced my hand. Picking up the hat after hoping to leave it behind puts a tremendous weight upon my head." Akari gave the man a more honest, if saddened smile.

"Don't worry, I get it. I...uh, I guess you were hoping to never be Hokage again after all, so to have to suddenly start working again..." Blowing air from her lips, Akari waved at her wall. "You mind if I turn my seals on? I'm guessing that's why you're here, something private? After all, if you wanted to just catch up you could find me in an Akimichi restaurant, or if 'lil Naruto was demanding it we'd be at Ichiraku." The old man's eyes brightened at the mention of Naruto, though his lips remained firm.

"Sharp as ever I see. Yes, if you could please activate your privacy seals, that'd be lovely. I don't doubt that your home is protected, but even the keenest defences have holes." With a nod, Akari reached her hand to a seemingly blank piece of her sofa, flowing her chakra into the ink hidden there and activating the seals inscribed all across the walls of her apartment.

It was a nightmare to draw out, since she had to go up the walls and across the ceiling to make sure the room was completely covered, but it was excellent for creating true privacy. To the Byakugan and Sharingan, the room will have become a black hole, and no sound would escape either. For all intents and purposes, the small area had vanished. "So, what is it you need Hokage-sama?"

Steeping his fingers together, Hiruzen placed his elbows on his knees, looking directly into Akari's onyx eyes. "Akari-ch...no, Akari-san, I need your assistance with a rather...delicate situation involving the Uchiha Clan and their interests." Akari's eyebrows rose, and she gestured with a hand for him to go on. "Before I continue, I must inform you that the information we speak of within this room is an S-rank secret. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the consequences to sharing this information?" Akari shook her head.

S-rank secrets were the tippy-top of secrets, the Village-breaking, Status-quo-shattering sort. Naruto's heritage was, by comparison, only an A-rank. Her Jinchuriki status, of not spread around as such, would likely have been S-rank. because she was skilled enough to look after herself, she didn't need it to be kept secret, even if it would have made her life a heck of a lot easier. More than once during missions enemy Shinobi tried to capture her or mess with her seal. "Just to clarify, if I hear this mission, can I still deny it?"

Sarutobi smiled then. "Certainly. I would not force you to accept a mission without telling you about it. The mission is S-ranked as well, with the appropriate payment already set aside. Now then, knowing this, are you still willing to at least hear me out? I won't lie, this is a rather...delicate situation, and has the potential to generate some rather devastating repercussions."

Akari took a moment before she shrugged and nodded. "Sure."

"Then, let me start at the beginning. You are undoubtedly aware of the past of our village, the hatred in the relations between Senju and Uchiha being set aside to form Konohagakure as we know it, by Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara?" Akari nodded, it was part of the basics, something original Akari learnt before new Akari took over. "Well, the Uchiha weren't particularly liked nor trusted by his younger brother, the Nidaime, Senju Tobirama. When he came into power, he talked the Uchiha into becoming what you would know as the Konoha Military Police Force."

Taking a deep breath, Hiruzen slouched in his chair slightly. "Unfortunately, what he did only served to push your clansmen further into a corner. Think about this; How many Uchiha do you see outside of the compound who aren't on official business?" Opening her mouth, Akari was about to retort with several, only to find that outside of her mother coming over to visit her, or her brother working in the Academy and walking there and back, she couldn't think of any Uchiha who had jobs outside of the compound.

"Wait, but what about Shinobi? I can't be the only Uchiha Shinobi...right?" She frowned as she muttered, mostly to herself but loud enough for Hiruzen's ears to catch.

Sighing, Hiruzen shook his head. "You aren't the only one Akari-san. For example, Uchiha's Fugaku, Itachi, Shisui, and Mikoto are all Shinobi. Though Fugaku-san, as you likely know, is far too busy as the head of your clan to be active, Mikoto-san has taken herself from the active rosters on the grounds of maternity care for her sons, one of whom is Itachi, who just became a Genin." Taking his pipe out, he made to fill it with tobacco, but Akari's frown dissuaded him. He instead settled for simply rolling it around in his hand, a frown on his lips.

"This leaves us with a problem. Your clansmen feel as though they've been being pressed into a corner ever since Madara betrayed the village, made worse by the suspicion surrounding their inactivity during the Kyuubi attack. This, coupled with the diminishing number of active Shinobi within their ranks, has led them to decide that more drastic measures are necessary. They believe they've kept it a secret, but somebody loyal to me has kept me informed...they plan to initiate a coup and take power by force."

Exhaling harshly, Akari leaned back in her chair, ignoring the squeak of springs as she observed the God of Shinobi seemingly deflate before her eyes. A coup. Her clan thought a coup would solve all their problems. "You're...completely serious. My clan actually thinks a coup will save them at this point?" When Hiruzen gave her a firm nod, she grit her teeth. "Idiots." She growled under her breath. "Fucking..idiots. They have what...maybe 12 active Sharingan users? And out of those, maybe 2 with a Mangekyo? Not including me of course. And they think they'd be able to keep the Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Aburame, Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka and all the other clans in line?"

"Well, I don't know their exact plans. For them to believe this Coup possible leads me to believe either they have a hidden ability or weapon which would grant this, or they are truly desperate." Putting his pipe to his lips, he puffed the empty tube a few times, taking strength from the familiar action. "This is why I would like-"

"What could I honestly do?" Akari interrupted the Hokage bluntly. "If I came back into the clan now asking about anything even remotely close to what they are planning, they'd know something is up and run for cover." Leaning back, Akari lifted an arm over the back of her chair, letting Monty slide up her arm and around her neck. "And subterfuge is not something I'm particularly good at. Want me to heal a hundred injured Shinobi? Sure. Kill a squad of missing-nin? Let me at em. But infiltrating a clan who have Dojutsu strong enough to tell when someone is lying, just by reading their Chakra?" Akari shook her head. "Look, Hokage-sama, the way I see it is that...while I'm flattered you think I can help...I just don't see any way I can actually be helpful here."

Chuckling softly, Hiruzen leaned forwards. "Well, you may just be looking at it from the wrong angle."

* * *

"Hideyoshi Depot."

Muttering to herself, Akari folded her arms as she observed the map she received from the Mission office, flicking her gaze up to the Chunin sat behind his desk. A genin was sorting files behind him and casting furtive glances towards Akari. "That's right Akari-san. The client requires a saboteur to destroy this depot, which has been inhabited by bandits, to prevent others from inhabiting it. Typically an ANBU Saboteur would handle this, but there are none available right now."

Humming, she picked the piece of paper up and rolled it, tossing it into her pouch. "Cool. So what, break down the walls, level the place, make it worthless?" The Chunin nodded, reaching under his desk to place a satchel atop his desk. "What's that for?" The Chunin gave her a blank look, as though she asked a stupid question.

"Explosive tags. Y'know, to level the place?" He said with a sarcastic lilt to his voice. Smirking, Akari cocked her hip, placing her hand atop her side.

"I don't think I'll be needing that. Honestly, has the Battle of Akaya Plains been forgotten already?" The Chunin blanched as she mentioned the battle she was renowned for, realizing who she was before muttering something under his breath as he took the satchel of explosives back. Akari looked like an Uchiha, but many people seemed more than happy to dismiss her, even ignoring the flak vest she wore which signified she was at minimum a Tokubetsu Jonin, though it was the same vest as fully-fledged Jonin wore.

"Right, well, I'm sure the scroll has all the necessary information, so unless there's anything else...?" The Chunin waved her off, and she strolled from the building with a grin, her arm reaching up to pet the head of Monty as she slipped up from her place wrapped around Akari's neck, hiding underneath her scarf.

Walking up the side of a nearby building, Akari took a moment to look over Konoha, the rising sun appearing over the forests and walls of the massive village and illuminating the buildings, where numerous Shinobi and civilians made their business wandering about. On the rooftops, several Shinobi were visible simply hopping around, travelling from place to place, but deftly avoiding the foot-traffic on the ground. Idly, Akari opened her menu, quickly selecting quests and skimming the mission.

**Quest received.**

**Depot Duty**

**Objective:**

**Destroy Hideyoshi Depot.**

**Reward: 15,000 experience.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**?**

With a smile she dove over the side of the building, leaping to the next building with a slight boost of chakra and landing with a skid, immediately kicking off from the roof and sprinting across the ground, bounding across another gap smoothly. She repeated this process many times, waving a few times to Shinobi she passed by on her way to her apartment.

At least once she leapt over a gap to spot the amusing visage of a civilian seeing her go flying across the gap, usually dropping their jaw when they realized what they'd just seen. While a few Shinobi used the rooftops to traverse Konoha, many preferred to simply travel on the ground. It was somewhat frowned upon to constantly use the rooftops to travel since there was always the chance you'd put your foot through a weakened part of the structure, which wouldn't be good.

This meant that, while rare, there was still a moderate population of civilians who were in Konoha, usually on business of some kind, and never saw a Shinobi roof-hopping or walking up walls. Rare, but they did exist. It was always a great laugh to walk up a wall in front of one of them, especially the children. It was absolutely awesome having a bunch of kids swarming around chirping about how awesome being a ninja was and how they wanted to learn how to do it.

Akari was confident enough in her abilities to travel near-constantly, only walking in the streets in certain situations like spending time with Naruto, or her mother and brother. It wasn't very conducive to a conversation when running across rooftops, nor very polite. Not that she particularly cared about being polite to people, but there was a certain level of common courtesy that even she was willing to give.

With nary a warning, Akari slipped into her apartment through the window in her kitchen, startling Naruto from his place on the floor of the living room as he panicked and hurled his toy kunai in her vague direction. "Oh, I've been hit! Woe is me!" Akari announced as her fingers snapped out around the toy, a pained grimace coming to her face easily. With an incoherent cheer, Naruto charged over to wrap his arms around her thigh, not quite being tall enough to reach her waist comfortably. "Hey there cub, how you been?" She ruffled the blonde's hair as he let go of her leg to reach up at her.

Blowing out a put-upon sigh, Akari obliged his silent request, leaning down to settle her hands under his armpits and lift him up, jumping him in her hands so he could sit on her arm. "Welcome home Kaa-san." He murmured, wrapping his stubby arms around Akari's neck and burying his face in her neck. Grimacing when he couldn't see it, she bit her lip, trying to come up with a way to let him down gently.

Stopping the grabby hand trying to reach for one of her seals, she rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand, sighing through her teeth. "Good to be back. Now...I know I promised we'd go out today, but I got called in...again...so I'm gonna be gone for a while again." She winced at the betrayed look that came across Naruto's face, quickly pressing his head up under her chin. "I'm sorry cub, but I can't just say no when they tell me only I can do the mission."

"I...it's fine Kaa-san." He said between sobs, dampening Akari's neck with his tears.

"Cub, we both know it isn't fine." Shifting through the apartment, Akari slumped down onto a chair, Naruto still in her arms. "I hate this as much as you do. But hey, if it makes them happy to know the big scary fox isn't threatening them, that's up to them." She tousled his hair for good measure, a little smile on her lips. She'd told Naruto about her tenant not long ago, not wanting to keep anything secret that she didn't have to. The boy then immediately claimed that he wanted to meet the fox for himself because, in his own words, 'Foxes are adorable.' and he wanted to pet one.

Kurama's growl was audible loudly in her head during that day, making Akari burst out laughing. She did then have to console Naruto when he thought she was laughing at what he wanted, but it was worth it. With searching hands, Naruto reached for her hand, pulling it towards himself and running his fingers along the faint scarring on her wrist. It was quite odd how fixated he got when he saw the scar, never being repulsed by it, even when she relented and told him exactly how she got it.

If anything, it made him even more in awe of her.

* * *

"Urk-"

The bandit in the guard tower gave a strangled sound as the Senbon pierced his vocal cord, and he dropped forwards off the tower, straight over the stone wall of the compound into Akari's waiting arms. Bending her knees as the rapidly-cooling cadaver hit her arms, she brought the body down near-silently, placing it on the floor and flickering her gaze around. Satisfied that nobody would find the corpse before it was too late, Akari crept up the side of the wall, slipping into the depot and observing the camp from her raised position on the wall, her feet planted firmly on the barbed wire ringing the wall-top.

There were several warehouses within the depot, stone paths networking between them. Barracks were set up between them, with the occasional man entering or leaving the buildings. It was clear that the men were not expecting to be attacked, many stood around with no weaponry on their persons, simply sucking on cigarettes, drinking alcohol and generally being...inept was the best way to describe them.

With a grumble to herself, Akari slid down the stone wall after extricating herself from the wire, landing on the dirt ground with nary a sound and flitting across the small gap between herself and the nearest warehouse. She snuck along the darkened wall, grateful that the lights weren't covering that side of the warehouse. Weirdly enough, the entire depot seemed quite poorly designed from a defensive stand-point.

The towers weren't lit up, meaning the guards couldn't see each other through the darkness. They were also so separated that hearing something happen was rather unlikely. While the outside area was well-lit with floodlights, the interior of the depot was a joke. The main lighting was in the middle of the depot, running along the pathways and main entrances to the warehouses, whereas the backsides of the buildings were left dark, a perfect place for somebody to hide.

Shaking her head at the ineptitude, Akari reached a side-door and gently rapped her knuckles on it twice, her ears straining to hear anybody close to the door. She knocked again on the door, firmly enough that anybody relatively near the door would hear it, but after nobody came to investigate, Akari twisted the doorknob and opened it, wincing slightly at the brightness of the room.

**"This is just insulting. Honestly, you'd think humans would have learnt better than this." **Kurama helpfully chimed in, making Akari growl at his suddenness.

"Seriously Kurama?" She hissed, careful to keep her voice neutral. Ever since Akari figured out that she could let him speak within her mind, he took a rather devious joy in piping up at inopportune moments to spook the girl. "The worst part is, if I agree with you, I'm insulting my own village, but if I don't, I look like an idiot. Whatever, whoever designed this place was, quite frankly, a retard." Kurama laughed at her statement, but Akari tuned him out, hearing footsteps within the warehouse and essentially 'muting' Kurama in her mind.

Fingering another Senbon, Akari retreated from the door a few paces and crouched down in the darkness. There wasn't any real cover to hide behind, but Akari was confident in her abilities that if someone with a light did exit the building, she could kill them before they even noticed her. Slipping the diminutive metal rod from the holster on her thigh, she planted it against her palm, then knelt down, prepared to wait patiently, breathing soft and near-silent.

A dozen more seconds passed before a man exited the door, looking around curiously before nudging the door closed behind himself, then tugging on the handle and humming to himself thoughtfully. With a grin, Akari loosed her Senbon, stabbing the metal straight through the pterion section of his skull, nice and vulnerable, piercing directly into his brain which killed him near-instantly. Akari Shunshin'd to his position and let him down slowly, generating only the bare minimum of noise with her kill. Planting her fingers on the end of her Senbon, she tugged the metal from the bandit's head with a grimace, then froze.

He had a Hitai-ate. More specifically, an Iwagakure Hitai-ate. What was more alarming was it wasn't scratched-through. That meant two things. Either the man was a Missing-nin and just hadn't scratched his Hitai-ate to trick people, or...he was still an active Shinobi. "Shiba?" Someone called a name, presumably the name of the dead man. Akari quickly formed the hand-seal for the Hiding Like a Mole technique which dropped the corpse into the ground, then dropping the seal and trapping the body underneath the dirt.

Slipping back into the darkness, Akari took a moment to re-assess the situation. According to the mission scroll, the depot was meant to be inhabited by a bunch of bandits. The depot was within Taki no Kuni borders, close to both the Hi no Kuni, Tsuchi no Kuni and Ame no Kuni borders. If Hidden Rain Shinobi suddenly appeared, Akari was going to flip her lid.

With a silent growl, she drew her still-bloodied Senbon and stalked towards the closed door, kicking it harshly to send it flying deep into the room and striking someone, the impact causing an audible cracking sound to emit, followed by a pained scream. Akari ignored this, her eyes flickering about as she saw three other men with Hitai-ate, all Iwa Shinobi.

What was odd was that there were several men standing around who bore no Hitai-ate. Instead, they had red cloths tied around their left forearms, presumably an identifying mark of some kind. "What the-!" One of them yelled, but Akari was already in motion, sprinting along the warehouse wall and going sideways up the wall, throwing the Senbon in her hand at the one who yelled before transitioning to the ceiling and pressing her hands together, quickly forming the half-dozen seals and inhaling.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" She yelled, breathing out a stream of fire across the warehouse, mostly aimed at the Shinobi, but some flame was spared for the presumed bandits as well. The one she struck with a Senbon was too distracted by the Senbon in his throat to avoid the attack, but the other two were fast enough to evade the flames, leaving their friend to burn alive. The presumed-bandits were incinerated before they could do anything, cutting the number of enemies down to two. "Tch."

Cutting the flow of Chakra to her lungs, Akari let her flame die, simultaneously drawing her Bowie knives out from their seals and dropping from the ceiling to avoid the retaliatory Earth Bullets which flew at her old position, flipping in midair to end up firmly on her feet. Channelling Chakra to her legs, Akari bolted forwards, reaching one of her opponents in a mere second and embedding one of her daggers straight through his eye. She left the blade there as she parried the enraged Kunai strike from her next opponent, swiping a hand across her leg then flicking it out, releasing the Senbon in a low arc at the Iwa-nin's torso as she disengaged. His flak vest prevented several from piercing his skin, but the angle was low enough to allow more than a few to pierce his legs, jamming into the meat of his thighs to hamper his movement.

A cocky grin on her lips, Akari kicked her foot to the side where the corpse lay with her blade, planting her foot underneath the hand-guard and kicking the weapon up into her grasp, flicking it once to clean it of some of the blood. A metal scraping sound came from her left, and Akari flickered her eyes across to see a blonde genin enter the warehouse. Dropping her Bowie knife for her seal to catch, Akari swiped another few Senbon and drew her arm back to throw. She was prevented from doing so when the Nin she was fighting before charged forwards, ignoring the way the Senbon in his legs tore apart his musculature.

Sighing, Akari twitched her arm, throwing the Senbon at the idiot man before leaning down and thundering forwards under the strike of the Kunai which blocked her Senbon, stabbing her knife upwards and impaling the man straight through the wrist, forcing him backwards and tripping him with a well-placed ankle behind his foot. His fall drew the knife back out from his arm, which Akari immediately used to slit his throat, blocking his retaliatory punch with her forearm guard. Ignoring the blood which now coated her front, Akari flicked her knife once as she stood and prepared to charge at the Genin. When she laid eyes on him, however, she reconsidered.

He wasn't looking at her with anger, or hatred, or anything like that for killing what was presumably part of his squad. No, he was looking at her with...hope? "Uhh, kid?" Akari asked, confused. The blonde looked between her and the dead Iwa-nin, blinking a few times before walking forwards. Akari fingered her Bowie knife and observed as he approached, her eyes on his hands. Or rather, the mouths on his hands. "Okay, mouths on your palms, I can deal with palm-mouths." She said, flipping her knife over before holding it in a reverse-grip and preparing to charge him.

The boy stopped when she lowered her torso, his eyes widening. "Uhh, I don't want to fight, un!" Raising an eyebrow, Akari flipped her knife in her hand, gesturing for him to continue. "I just want to get away from Iwa, they don't appreciate my art." Making a non-committal noise, Akari re-sealed her blade, giving him a questioning look. She watched as the kid dug a hand into the pouch on his back, the mouth on his hand chewing something a few times before spitting out a white spider onto his other hand. He then tossed the spider to the side, further into the room. "Uhh, you may want to cover your ears, un." Akari quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over.

"What exactly am I doing that for?" The kid just pointed in the direction of the clay sculpture he just tossed. A few more seconds passed before an explosion, about the size of a standard explosive tag, rocked the building. "Oh holy shit that's cool." She admitted unabashedly, and the kid grinned at her. "Wait, woah woah woah, can those move autonomously as well?" The kid gave her a confused look. "On their own." She clarified.

"Oh yeah, un! My spiders can move on their own, watch." The blonde then formed another spider, making it dance over his hand. Humming, Akari slid the Senbon out of the corpses she'd stuck them into, sliding them back into her holster and replacing the few that were damaged or missing using her seals. "Uhh, so I'm Deidara." He offered, to which Akari smirked at him, activating her Mangekyo casually and startling the boy.

"Akari. Though, you might know me better as the Crimson Medic."

* * *

"You know, when you were sent on this mission Akari-chan, you weren't meant to bring back the protege of the Third Tsuchikage."

Blinking owlishly, Akari looked between the Hokage and Deidara in disbelief. "Uhh, what?" Deidara definitely didn't mention THAT little tidbit at any point during their walk back to Konoha.

Deidara rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I didn't want you to decide I was too bothersome." He then frowned. "And considering how you took down that depot...I didn't want to get on your bad side, un." Chuckling softly, the Hokage drew their attention back to him.

"Well, if you wouldn't mind waiting outside my boy, Akari here can give her report and we'll...figure out what to do with you I suppose." He gave the kid a genial smile and waved him out of the room. Deidara gave a wary look at Akari, to she tried to reassure him with a smile, though he still looked pretty nervous about his future, and he left with a glance back over his shoulder. As soon as the doors closed, Akari let a frown come across her lips when she felt the seals in the office activate.

"The Tsuchikage's protege? Please tell me you're joking." Hiruzen merely shook his head. "Fuck." Akari swore under her breath, twisting her head to look back at the closed doors. "Okay. No, this is fine. What I really want to know is why the hell someone like him was out in a random commandeered supply depot. I mean, who gave the order for that mission? Because it feels like they were trying to get Konoha shinobi killed." Hiruzen puffed his pipe a few times.

Standing from his chair, the old Hokage turned to face Konoha, sighing heavily. "Unfortunately Akari-chan, the one who placed the request is believed to be missing or dead." Rubbing his face with one hand, he wandered closer to the window. "We know that whoever ordered this request must have sources within the upper echelons of our command structure, as they knew exactly when our ANBU Saboteurs were out of the village. What's worse is that this specific request would have only been takeable by an Uchiha."

Taking a faltering step backwards, Akari narrowed her eyes. "You mean to tell me that the only available Shinobi for this specific mission were the very few Uchiha currently on active duty?" Hiruzen gave a firm nod of his head. "Great. Just fucking great. So what, I was meant to die out there?"

"Presumably so I'm afraid. I know not who ordered this, but it is clear they are attempting to tie up any potential loose ends involving the Uchiha clan. This could be...extremely detrimental for your clan if this continues, which is why I'm assigning you an extra objective to your mission. If another mission of this nature comes up, I'll be assigning you to it as a precaution. I'm sure you can handle yourself just fine, so as long as you are with another Shinobi of Konoha, you should-" Akari interrupted the Hokage with a raised hand.

"Hokage-sama, are you forgetting something important?" The man raised an eyebrow. "If this mystery plotter has their hands in the upper levels of our command structure, then surely...we can't even trust our own Shinobi..." Akari trailed off. "...Fuck." Akari curled a fist up. "That's...okay, Hokage-sama, I don't really want to say this, but it'd probably be a good idea to make sure if any Uchiha get sent out of the village, I get sent with them. Considering how the person behind this seems to want to target Uchiha, the safest people to send me on mission with are going to be said Uchiha..."

Palming her chin, Akari whined slightly in her throat. "Ugh, but then those Uchiha going to get suspicious of why exactly I'm constantly monitoring any Uchiha that leave the village, making them even more suspicious of the village for 'spying on them'. This whole situation is just fucked." Hiruzen merely smirked at her.

"Indeed. This is a rather challenging conundrum. I believe, for now, our best bet is to stay our course, keep you within Konoha as much as possible, and continue to present you to the Uchiha until such a time as they believe your power is worth the risk of exposure. Now, I am going to offer you a piece of rather important information. One of the Uchiha, the one called Shisui of the Body Flicker, has a Mangekyo just like you. His, however, is far more insidious if in the wrong hands." Hiruzen stepped back to his desk and opened a drawer, revealing a scroll and unrolling it across his table, brushing aside a few sheafs of paper.

Leaning over, Akari read the title atop the scroll. "Kotoamatsukami...hmm." Skimming the rest of the scroll quickly, Akari exhaled sharply when she finished. "Wow, that's pretty...scary actually." Chuckling softly, Hiruzen nodded.

"I agree. If this ability became commonly known...I dread to imagine what sort of bounty would be placed atop Shisui-san's head." Tapping his chin with his pipe, Hiruzen made a thoughtful noise. "Ahh, that reminds me, you have an updated bingo book page now." Rolling her eyes, Akari rolled the scroll on the table up and placed it to the side.

"Well, if it isn't a flee-on-sight order, then it really doesn't matter much to me. Increasing my bounty isn't really gonna change much either." Shrugging, Akari sat down on the chair beside the Hokage's desk. "So, any idea what's going on at Konoha General? I keep meaning to pop my head in and say hello to a few of them, but I keep getting side-tracked. I mean, I'm sure they don't mind, especially with my brother regularly taking Golan seals there, but still."

Smiling, Hiruzen gladly informed Akari of what she missed, though cut the explanation short when his secretary reminded him of the blonde currently sat outside his office. "Right, we should probably, ahh, send him in." Smirking, Akari body-flickered over to the door and opened it, patting Deidara's shoulder which startled the boy, before flickering back to her seat. "And close the door behind you please my boy." The Hokage called when Deidara stepped back into the room.

"...Right."

* * *

**Betcha none of you saw that coming.**

**Deidara and Akari meeting. Sure, it's gonna screw with canon a little, but I couldn't help myself. Also Merry Christmas! I decided a few days...a week...oh, fine, two weeks ago, that I wanted to have some chapters ready to go for a big Christmas Special! Originally I wanted to do, in no particular order other than descending alphabetically: War Dog, The Whisperer, The Eternal Game, The Crimson Dovah, Akari Nanashi, Imperial Problems - Imperial Solutions, Feathered Rose and Empty Lights.**

**However, it's likely I'll get maybe three of those finished since its 2:30am on the 25th now. So I have 14 and a half hours until I plan to upload. And I usually go to sleep at like 4am, so in reality, like 5/6 hours. Hoo boy!**

**(Also, I completely forgot to add the status to this chapter. Fixed that now obviously, but that was a bit of a whoops moment.)**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 1377/48000**

**To Next Level: 46623**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**


	12. Chapter 12

***NOTIFICATION: I'm not dead I swear. I know, I know, I haven't uploaded a thing since Christmas, and I'm so sorry! Ask any of my friends...who none of you have contact with, but hush, and they'll tell you that I've been raving about my stories. Trials of the Wylfen Corsair's first chapter is currently sitting at 20.5k words. And the rest are everywhere between 4000 words and 200 words. I didn't want to just focus on one story, so I've worked on...uhm...12 different chapters at once...PLEASE DON'T YELL AT ME I'M SAWWY! But yeah, they'll be coming out when I feel they are done. Wylfen Corsair is going to be my baby, even though this right now is my most loved story.**

**Though, let me be extremely clear. Aside from Alagaesian Anomaly, NONE, not a SINGLE ONE of my stories is abandoned. I want to write for every single one. That includes Crimson Dovah. And Broken Watch. And all the rest of them! I just...get distracted easily. Sorry again, I'll make it up to you all boos! This chapter is short since I decided I NEED to let you all know what's going on. I feel so bad now D'=***

**This is possibly the fluffiest chapter I've ever written. It's...way too PG and happy for me...It feels weird. Welp, time to have Tobi show up to murder Naruto in front of Akari, that should get the blood flowing!**

_**Chapter 12**_

* * *

Ignoring the jangling sound her Rolling Table item made, Akari flipped the meat in her pan, one of her eyes tracking the slot as it twisted through thousands of potential items far too fast to see, whilst the other ensured the meat she was cooking didn't burn.

Flipping out a plate from the cupboards to her side, she turned the stove down, the pan being left directly above the flames as she dug around in the cupboards for some rolls. Today was a good day for the young Jonin, she had a full week to relax and spend time with a rapidly-growing Naruto. A week! Seven whole days to kick back and do sod all. To top that, she found a hidden sub-tab in her menus filled to the brim with old-world music.

Immediately calling upon her memories of music from her world, she put some music from an expansion pack for an apocalyptic game, since the title Old World Blues just tickled her. She didn't exactly miss her old world, she lived as she died, going out with a bang. It kinda sucked that she died so young, but her new world was pretty damn awesome, so it really wasn't a big deal to the reincarnate.

With the roulette item selector slowing down, Akari kept an eye on it as she cut open the rolls and dug out their insides, setting them on their sides in neat rows and nibbling on the excess bread. With a deft hand she scooped up some of the meat and pushed it into the rolls, filling them up one by one and then pressing the leftover bread into the hole to seal them back up. "Naruto!" She called loudly, hearing a bang as the boy hit something in his surprise.

"Yeah?!" He yelled from his room, his voice far louder than necessary.

Not that her own was much better. "Food!" She retaliated, snickering to herself at the thought of just how their neighbours must feel with the two loudest Konoha inhabitants living in the same apartment. Swiping another plate, Akari shunted off a quarter of the rolls for the young Uzumaki. While he ate a lot, he had absolutely nothing on Akari's appetite. Being a Jinchuriki practically took her from a somewhat normal girl who ate a little more than she was used to, and turned her into a bottomless void of food.

Loud footfalls alerted her to the oncoming ravenous beast which was Naruto, so she took his plate in one hand and leaned backwards, placing it on the kitchen island before grabbing her own and some barbecue sauce. Before she could settle down to eat her food and read through a few Fuinjutsu scrolls, there was a knock at the door. Suppressing a growl at the interruption, she laid her plate back down and hopped over to the door.

"Oh, heya." Was her casual reaction to the other blonde stood at her door. She kinda felt bad dragging the kid before the Hokage like she did. It was the regional equivalent of dragging someone in front of the President. If said President was Arnold Schwarzenegger. As in, capable of burying your head in the ground even in his advanced age. There was no doubt in Akari's mind that if the cutie had put a single toe out of line in front of Hiruzen, he'd be buried in the ground with the Hokage's staff on his throat before he could blink.

It sucked that she got sent away to 'rest', so she couldn't coach him through how to not be a massive idiot in front of quite possibly the strongest Ninja in the village, but she was hopeful that he could hold his own. "Kaa-san?" Naruto chirped from behind her, and she had to resist the urge to rip her own hair out. No matter how many times she told him she wasn't his bloody mother, he didn't listen.

_"But you're the one who washes my clothes, feeds me and houses me." __'Well yeah, you can't look aft-'_

_"You read me stories, comfort me during nightmares, give me hugs when I ask." __'That's not-"_

_"And that time that Kunai scraped me, you're the one who looked after me when I got sick." __'That was only because that bastard hated the Kyuubi so much and thought that to hurt you would hurt me~.'_

No matter what she argued, he was steadfast in countering her. At some point, she threw her hands up and just gave up on the whole situation. She'd take on a hundred Iwa nin without blinking, but in the face of Naruto's puppy-dog eyes when he asked her if she didn't want him, she collapsed like a house of cards. "Uhh, do you want to come to Deidara-san?" The blonde gave a shaky nod, leading Akari to step aside. "Okay, just leave your sandals in the getabako." With that, Akari wandered away from the front door, picking her plate back up then gesturing at the confused boy. "Want something to eat?"

"That sounds...great, un." Quirking a smirk at the poor flustered boy as he quietly, though plenty loud enough for her to hear, cursed his verbal tick, Akari opened another cupboard and retrieved a small plate, shunting off one of her rolls before handing it to the boy. "Uhh, not to sound rude Akari-san, but...what are these?" He eyed the stuffed roll with suspicion.

Reaching over, she pointed out where the roll had been sealed. "They're spicy meat-stuffed rolls. Damn simple to make, just saute some minced meat with salt, pepper, chili powder, ground cumin, and a few other bits and bobs, then remove the insides of a roll, push some meat into the roll, seal it back up, and voilá!" Smiling at Deidara's perplexed expression, she just waved her hand at the roll on his plate. "Just try it. Naruto here-" She ran her hand atop the boys head, chuckling softly as he leaned into her hand. "-can probably attest to them being good. Even if he would prefer them to be stuffed with ramen. Carbs on carbs, honestly."

Still confused, but hesitantly excited, Deidara took up the roll and eyed it with suspicion, before slowly sinking his teeth into it and taking a bite. Then another. Then half the roll was gone when Akari blinked. And then extended his plate, silently asking for more. "More please, un." Then audibly asking for more. Smiling, Akari pushed another two rolls off her plate onto his.

"Well, is that isn't a solid endorsement I don't know what is. I take it you like spicy food as well then?" The boy responded by nodding his head, his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk as he tried to eat far too much at once. Stifling her laughter with her hand, Akari unconsciously turned her Sharingan on. "Oh, I'm so memorizing that!" Getting her laughter under control, Akari lifted one of her own rolls up, poised to take a bite, when her Rolling Table finished turning, prompting Akari to freeze as she read the item name.

Her sudden statue-esque imitation was not missed by Naruto or Deidara, who were both confused when Akari began staring at nothing. "Uhh, Akari-san?" Deidara inquired, though the jonin didn't respond. Right now, she was far too busy trying her damnest not to leap out of her chair and do a backflip or five. For years she'd been getting just the absolute dregs of items, things which were barely useful, but still counted. Well...now she'd finally had her patience pay off with an item that, against all odds, she actually recognized.

**You've received...: The Subtle Knife. One edge is of steel, keen enough to part any physical material with ease. The other is of manganese-titanium alloy craft, and honed so finely as to be willed to part the veil between worlds. Use this at your peril, for interdimensional travel is utterly impossible to plot. You may never return to your start location when the initial parting closes.**

Blinking, Akari placed her food back down, noticing now the worried looks she was garnering. Affixing a little smile on her face, she sighed. "Don't worry about me, just...thought of something good, that's all." More than once she grappled with the idea of telling Naruto about what she could do, but the same fear that tore at her before came knocking again. He made no secret that he wanted to be a shinobi like she was, and that meant he was sworn to be utterly loyal to the Hokage. Her abilities would likely see her either permanently out of the village fighting, locked up for experimentation, or, the worst one, forced into pregnancy to see if her offspring had the same powers.

Akari liked kids. Raising Naruto, while she could have done without the diabolically revolting vomit and diaper incidents of his younger years, was definitely an amazing experience which she wouldn't trade for the world. But she honestly didn't want to come anywhere near having a child of her own, Naruto was more than enough for her. "Don't mind her, Kaa-san does that sometimes." Naruto chirped with a grin.

Huh, apparently her little one was more observant than he let on. Akari was pretty sure she hadn't been distracted by her game in front of him at any point, but apparently she wasn't careful enough. It was good that she had gotten very good at using sleight of hand to activate and remove items from her inventory, as well as lying. Catching her removing something from it or adding something wasn't too bad, since she could play it off as Fuinjutsu, but there's a limit to how much she can say that before someone gets suspicious.

"That I do. And you'll be doing the same if you don't hop skip and get your little butt out that door soon, as I believe you're forgetting something." Akari rolled her head to smirk at the deer-in-headlights look Naruto adopted. Grinning at him for a few moments, he wolfed down an entire roll in two bites, grabbed his final one, and scarpered out the door after rushing over to peck her on the cheek, a hastily-yelled 'Bye kaa-san' over his shoulder. "...I'll be honest, I actually forgot he had to go to the Academy today as well, but don't let him know that." She planted her finger to her lips in a shushing motion, eyes bright as she smiled at Deidara.

"...I won't say a word." He vowed solemnly, images of what Kurotsuchi would do if she ever caught him spreading her secrets came to mind, leaving him to shudder.

* * *

**I know, it's suuuuuper short, and basically a fluff chapter. I mostly needed a way to put that announcement out, and this story was sat at 1.5k words for like 2 weeks, so I just decided 'Fuck it.' and wrapped it up. Akari hasn't forgotten about Megami no Te, she just...doesn't think Naruto is ready to meet his mother. So, it'll be once he graduates from the Ninja Academy and becomes a genin that she will speak to him and ask him if he wants to meet his real mother, as his father is currently residing within the stomach of the Shinigami and not currently available.**

**Right now...Naruto is 3 and a half. Akari is 15 quickly approaching 16. It may seem like BS, but considering how much of a savant Naruto is, I'm making him smart for his age in terms of his vocabulary, and he's going to the Academy to watch in, under Sei's keen Golan-vision of course. Even a genius won't attend the Academy properly at 3 years old, but Akari has plenty of strings to pull to make sure her lil' Naru-chan succeeds in their harsh life.**

**Not that he's going to be allowed to enter the Academy at such a young age. Right now he's learning from them, but Akari is going to be very, VERY firm about ensuring that he spends time with those his own age. Her own experiences left her unable to be put with any other team, since she knew nobody from her age group strong enough to keep up with her, and most of the older Shinobi as well. The few who would be able to match her are way too far out of her circle of influence it isn't even funny. I mean, picture Kakashi, Akari and Itachi on a team together. I honestly can't think of anyone who can keep up with her amongst those vaguely her own age.**

**Oh, right, speaking of which, Kurama isn't split in half. Minato temporarily took some of his chakra to weaken him, but the entirety of Kurama's chakra exists within Akari's seal, which is why he's far more...reasonable. I know, Naruto chapter 503 page 17 SPECIFICALLY says: "it's just not physically possible to seal it completely...It's not strategically feasible either..." but I say to you Minato, fuck you! Akari gets the entirety of the lovable ball of cuteness which is Kurama.**

**...I want Kurami back, she was sweet...I'm gonna go mope about how Nanashi Akari is too hard to write, eat some chocolates and hug something, don't mind me.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 1422/48000**

**To Next Level: 46578**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**

* * *

**That's right, this is another skills rundown. Akari has been progressing nicely, keeping up with her training when she hasn't been doing missions or looking after Naruto. All of her skills, aside from Polearm-usage which is now defunct, are ascending, some far more than others. That's why this chapter looks so long. I swore I'd only do these every 4 chapters, and I stand by my word, I hate how much it inflates my word-count, but it's necessary so you can see her progression without me having to repeat the words "She trained." in a hundred different ways.**

**And...a new skill is hanging around at the bottom of her proficiencies...something very useful, but broken right now. Oooooh, a tease.**

* * *

**Techniques**

**Mystical Palm technique/Beginner - The catch-all medical ability. Able to regenerate wounds of varying degrees. Usage - 25CP/s. Heal-rate - 25HP/s. Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Novice - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Novice. Usage: 50CP/s. Heal-rate - 50HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Graduate - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Graduate****. Usage: 75CP/s. Heal-rate - 75HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlock****ing improved variant.**

**Fire Release: Great Fireball - A well-known Jutsu within the Uchiha Clan. Moulding Chakra within your lungs, you can expel flames as either a colossal ball of fire, or as a continuous stream of flame. Ball Usage - 150 CP/each. Stream Usage - 25CP/s.**

**Fire Release: Phoenix Flower ****\- This technique coats Shuriken, Kunai or Senbon in Fire Chakra, slightly hiding their exact location within the flames and causing extra damage. Usage - 15CP/weapon.**

**Substitution Jutsu - An Academy standard, the art of swapping your position with an inanimate object up to the same size as yourself when in imminent danger. Usage - 75CP/each.**

**Transformation Jutsu - Take another form and hide in plain sight. This ability puts an illusion over the user, but is easily disrupted. Target must be within 2 feet of height to caster, and within 50lbs of weight. Usage - 75CP/cast, 2CP/s to maintain.**

**Clone Jutsu - An illusionary non-corporeal clone. Great for distractions, but not much else. Upgrades into Shadow Clones, which are corporeal. Usage - 15CP/each.**

**Poison Extraction Jutsu - This ability drains poisons and foreign bodies from wounds. Length of time for extraction varies depending on strength and amount of poison. Usage - 100CP/s.**

**Shunshin - The pretty-much teleportation ability. This Jutsu acts by hyper-enhancing a Shinobi's abilities, essentially enabling them to run at absurd speed for a fraction of a second. Cost is calculated by distance. Usage 15CP/meter.**

**Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan - The eyes of a close relative. When in use, will no longer degrade visual acuity. Mangekyo Techniques will now also no longer damage eye-sight. Same abilities as regular Mangekyo Sharingan. Usage: 25CP/s.**

**Left Eye: Megami No Te (The Hand of Goddess) - This technique grants the user the ability to completely manipulate the ground around them within a fifty-meter radius. This requires great concentration but can be devastating if used correctly. Usage - 500CP/Cast, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Right Eye: Megami no Mon (Goddess's Gate) - This technique will summon forth a corporeal spectre from the Pure Lands to fight or act on your behalf. To use, the name of the Spectre must be invoked, and the face of the summoned one must be in Mind's Eye. Spectre will have 2x Player's Chakra amount, and will drain Chakra at 1% per minute. Can use all original techniques of Spectre, but will use Chakra to fuel them, leading to a faster disappearance. Will follow all orders of Summoner, and cannot be affected by Genjutsu or compulsion techniques. Can be granted free will to act autonomously, but will mean Spectre can attempt to use loopholes in orders to hinder summoner if they so wish. Usage - 25% of total Chakra pool, will immobilize Summoner for 5 second duration whilst Spectre is called forth.**

**Susanoo: As the user has both Mangekyo, the Susanoo has been unlocked, a large Chakra construct capable of being formed around the user for protection and offence. This construct can be summoned in multiple forms, each one being larger, more protective and with more abilities.**

**Level 1 - A rib-cage surrounds the user, protecting them from harm but lacking offence. The form will slowly grow until it is formed into a large skeletal structure, where musculature and skin will grow, finally forming into a giant humanoid: 500CP/Cast, 25CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 2 - Armour forms around the Susanoo for added protection, though it is not a complete protection: 1250CP/Cast from nothing, 500CP/Cast from Level 1, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 3 - The Susanoo will now form the final pieces of armour, becoming fully-enshrouded. The Susanoo will gain wings for flight, with Ornate robes over heavy armour granting the construct hefty defences. The Complete-body Susanoo is capable of summoning weaponry to assist it during battle: 2500CP/Cast from nothing, 1500CP/Cast from level 1, 1000CP/Cast from level 2, 100CP/s to maintain.**

**Mindspace - The presence of the Kyuubi within your seal has granted you the ability to enter your own mind. Experience earned within the Mindspace is reduced by 100%. Time is dilated by a factor of 100 within Mindspace. You may converse with the Kyuubi no Kitsune within your Mindspace. This action is recommended. No Chakra cost.**

**Fire Release: Flame Bullet - This Jutsu pools oil within the user's mouth, before firing then ignites said liquid in a bullet shape. Usage - 25CP/bullet.**

**Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder - By moulding Lightning-nature Chakra into your hands, you can release varying powers of electricity to stun or even kill your opponents. Usage - 25CP/s for stun, 75CP/s for lethal.**

**Earth Release: Rock Trail - This Jutsu spikes out a series of large rocks from the ground in a stream towards your target. Cost is dictated by distance between user and target. Usage - 25CP/meter.**

**Proficiencies**

**Uchiha Interceptor Fist - A Taijutsu form used by the Uchiha which makes the best possible usage of the Sharingan Dojutsu's predictive abilities to counter enemy attacks and bring victory. - Level 43 - 14.2%**

**Shurikenjutsu - The art of throwing pointy things. Pretty self-explanatory. - Level 37 - 5.6%**

**Bukijutsu - The way of the weapon. Covers all weaponry. - Level 53 - 58.7%**

**Knife-fighter - Using short-blades, daggers and Kunai in close-quarters combat. - Level 56- 11.8%**

**Fuinjutsu - Sealing arts. The practice of using ink to achieve your goals. - Level 67 - 93.4%**

**Mystical Palm - Ability to detect and heal wounds using linked Jutsu. - Level 51 - 12.2%**

**Polearm-user - The act of swinging a long thing with a pointy bit at the end. - Level 0 - 0.0% - Defunct -**

**Tree-running - Leaf Shinobi are trained to flit through trees, which increases their speed and concealment. - Level 37 - 97.1%**

**One-handed Seal usage - Using only one hand to make seals? You showoff. - Level 17 - 22.1%**

**Cooking - Really? This is a proficiency? Whatever. Your cooking skills have been noted. Now get out there and make more food! - Level 23 - 2.8%**

***e** C**d**s*** *a***r* - *o**e***** **a** ** * v****b** ***l* *** * *hi****, **tt*** **** ** f***a**** ***e. - Level 0 - 0.1%**

**Perks**

**Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed Fox - You now contain the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Can call upon Bijuu Chakra when needed to fight. Will turn your body more animalistic (when in use); Claws, Tails, Ears, Eyes will become similar to the Kyuubi. Potential to be ostracized by your village. Will become hunted by certain elements in future for your tenant. Mindspace Technique granted.**


	13. Chapter 13

**"What do we do with a d-*hick*-runken sailor, what do we do wi-*urp*th a 'runken 'alor, 'at 'o 'e 'oo 'v..."**

_**...**__**I honestly...have no fucking idea what goes through Fire's head sometimes.**_

**WHEEEEEE!**

_**Fire, sweetie...did you get into the medicine cabinet again?**_

**LOOK JACK I'M FLYI-*CRASH***

_**...For fuck sake.**_

**Oh...ahem. Uhh, if any of you lovelies could please have a tiny little peek at Trials of the Wylfen Corsair, that'd be just peachy. It's currently one chapter...and 20,500 words...yeah, I went overboard with it. Hope ya enjoy!**

**(Also, the song Akari sings at the start of this is Masterpiece, by WAR*HALL. You should check out JennyMusic on YouTube for songs like this, they are...beautiful. Masterpiece, Man of Stone and Light are just...beautiful.) **

_**Chapter 13**_

* * *

"And I don't wanna miss the masterpiece..."

Singing along quietly to another song in her random mix, Akari twisted her ankles a little and spun around, using her rotation to speed up her weaponry as she threw them. A moment later they thudded deeply into the target, parting the wood with ease and embedding itself hilt-deep. "The beauty that's blooming all around me." Kicking her foot into the ground, Akari formed a hand seal, using that to cover for her casting of Megami no Te, which brought a spike of earth from the dirt to impale her target in the front. "The birth of a child and the way they grow."

Several more spikes then stabbed in from the side, following through by all coalescing together to completely entrap the wooden dummy then swiftly crunching together, obliterating her target. "The sun sinking down in the afterglow." With a flick, Akari used her control over the dirt currently consuming the target to pick her senbon out from the wood, spitting them out towards her at the same speed they went in. She continued singing along to the song as she practiced, using several different Jutsu.

Tossing out several senbon wreathed in Phoenix Fire, she then chased it by using a Great Fireball, cocooning the weapons within the flames and concealing them. The flames struck first, spewing across the surface of the target, followed quickly by her senbon, thrown fast and hard enough to pierce entirely into the target, the tips coming out the other side with ease.

Humming, she then closed her eyes, ensuring her Fuinjutsu barrier was still perfectly alright. It was there to stop anybody coming too close while she was performing anything dangerous, something she had to get the Hokage's permission to do. He was curious, but after she cited Susanoo training, he was plenty understanding, directing her to use one of the private training fields for her activities. After making sure the barrier was completely undamaged, and nothing was contained within bar a few birds and critters, she opened her eyes again, the swirling red Sharingan in either eye blazing with her own personal patterns.

"Susanoo!" Clasping her hands together, Akari cast the first tier of Susanoo, feeling with a grimace as it hungrily gulped up 10% of her total chakra stores in a single second. Around her, a ribcage of pure chakra began forming, midnight black in colour while the aura was, though still dark, not completely opaque. The bones snapped together with an audible crunch, cocooning her first before growing upwards to begin forming the rest of the skeleton.

As the arms, legs and head of the Susanoo were created, Akari yawned. She'd been practicing for a few hours, and before that she'd been writing out Golan seals for Sei to take to the hospital, so her left hand ached a small amount. Of course, it had nothing on the pain of being stabbed, shot or exploded, so she could deal with it, it was mostly just a mental drain, leaving her feeling a bit out of sorts. She finished forming the Susanoo and looked about.

It was completely skeletal, no musculature or skin anywhere to be seen. Casting the second level would make it appear as a giant humanoid, adding those muscles and other parts. Then tier three would add armour, as well as the ability to summon weaponry by forming raw chakra into shapes. It would also receive wings which granted flight, though it was rather unwieldy and difficult to maintain altitude.

She pressed her fingers into a seal and dispelled the Susanoo at level one, then with idle fingers, Akari drew out her newest acquisition from her inventory, flipping the blade across her fingers a few times and getting a feel for the weapon. It was a little off-balance, but had none of the dark marks which were present after it's first reforging, so evidently this was the original dagger. It could have been a thrice-forged weapon, but the wooden grip was unblemished, leading Akari to draw the conclusion that it was unlikely.

Swinging the regular edge around, she peered at the opposing edge with sharp, scrutinizing red eyes. It looked like a normal edge, but she knew that, despite never properly being explained, it was canonically strong enough to literally cut through the fabric separating dimensions. Of course, as she was not in the universe the Subtle Knife came from, it probably didn't play by the same rules.

She flicked one edge of the handle with her thumb, shaking her head at the silly name. It wasn't a knife, it was a dagger, it had two edges. Not that it really mattered, it was just a fact which irritated her. With a single sweep of her arm, and the intent to do so, a rent in reality appeared before her. The edges were a pulsating red, nearly bursting at the seams, as if each edge yearned to be joined with the other once again.

The tear itself resembled a black tunnel, ending with a solid black sheet which was completely opaque and rippling occasionally. Even using the Mangekyo Sharingan she couldn't see anything through the obstruction. Presumably it was to stop her from opening dozens of rips in reality until she saw one she liked the look of. If she wanted to know what was on the other end, she'd have to go through.

Luckily, she knew just the trick.

* * *

"Ahh, Akari-san, a pleasure. I hear Deidara-kun is settling in nicely?"

Suppressing a growl, Akari shrugged. "I guess." The old Kage had decided that, since she knew him, she would be responsible for keeping an eye on him while he settled into the village. Fortunately enough, her apartment was too small for more than her and Naruto, and so Hiruzen was forced to, after Akari adamantly refused to move somewhere larger, purchase another apartment within her block for the young teen to live within. "I mean, he seemed happy enough. Might have had something to do with the girl I caught leaving one night thought..."

Akari tapped her chin thoughtfully, leading Hiruzen to chuckle, taking another puff from his pipe. "I see. Well, I assume this is not a simple friendly visit?" Akari had been waiting around for at least a half-hour as Hiruzen was busy with a meeting when she arrived and asked to see him. More than one or two of the shinobi that passed her by gave her subtle glares or talked about her in muttered tones, words like 'demon-bitch' or 'Uchiha' being used a lot.

But, on the flip side, at least a few people greeted her with smiles and polite conversation as they came to and fro, while even more gave her simply polite smiles as they hurried along. After the hospital 'accidentally' leaked out the person who invented the Golan-seals, she had an upswing of positive reactions from the shinobi of Konoha, though it took a while for the knowledge to spread. Then to top it off, since it was known that she was the Jinchuriki for the Kyuubi, many acknowledged her as the one who saved their village after it broke free. She never used tailed-beast Chakra, not even outside of the village. The seal was one written by her and Minato, meaning absolutely no leakage. And besides, even if it did start leaking, she was more than adept enough with seals to repair it.

If absolutely necessary, even utilizing the Tailed Beast Transfer Technique wasn't out of her reach. Though, she would never want to force somebody to become the container for a Tailed Beast. The Kyuubi was...reasonable, but only because she treated him kindly. He spoke to her when she wished, ever since she gave him permission and the ability (Not that he'd ever say he needed either) to see through her eyes he would speak within her mind, sometimes using it to mess with her, but most of the time being honestly and genuinely helpful, pointing out things she'd missed when doing something.

Once she misplaced a line on a sealing tag and nearly blew her hand off thanks to an extremely dangerous inversion-feedback loop, feeding chakra through itself and pulling from its surroundings, which would have done some major damage. Thankfully, Kyuubi pointed out the error a few seconds she was going to test it, and smugly told her exactly what she did wrong. "Akari-san?"

Hiruzen's voice jolted her from her thinking, where she quickly plastered a sheepish smile on her face. "Apologies Hokage-sama, kinda got distracted thinking." The man waved her on, puffing away carelessly. "So, I told you I was practising one of my...techniques." She pointedly looked towards the visibly-empty couch, thanking Kyuubi mentally for telling her exactly where the ANBU guards were. "One of them is a bit more dangerous than I'd like to admit. So, with your permission, I'd like to see the Scroll of Seals so I can learn the Kage Bunshin Jutsu."

The old man's eyes raised slightly, his lips curling into a small smile. "Akari-san, you do realize that the Kage Bunshin isn't a Hiden technique?" Blinking, Akari growled audibly.

"I swear, I'm going to kick Kakashi in the balls for this." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, a silent request for her to elaborate. "He used it in front of me once during a spar, and when I asked if I could copy it, he went and told me it was a Hiden technique, which would mean I'd have to ask you. Oh, that's it, he's not getting any saury for a week, no, a goddamn month! See how he likes it when all the vendors refuse to sell to him! Ahh, speaking of food, would you like me to make up some hijiki-topped sardine fishballs for when I next come around as a thank you?"

Smiling, Hiruzen nodded. "That would be appreciated, though, I wonder how you'll get them on such short notice?"

"Trade secret." She smiled, a finger on her lips.

* * *

"-'t keep failing the-"

"-ing it again!-"

"-aid too much for i-"

Akari walked into a bar, her ears picking up several conversations the instant the doors were open. With experience earned through long practice she tuned out every voice aside from the one she was hunting for. "-Land of Hot Springs can't br-" Found it. She slid her way through the crowd, side-stepping around the few waitresses who were strolling around before coming to a stop directly behind the exact spiky mop of silver hair she was hunting for.

Raising her hand up, she was about to smack it down in a chop when- "That's not very nice Akari-chan." The man disappeared, popping up behind her with her raised hand in a vice-grip. Grinning, she kicked one leg up backwards, catching the man by surprise as she buried a foot in his family jewels. Stunned by the pain, his grip loosened just enough for her to rip her hand free, elbowing him in the face and knocking him flat on the floor. With nary a moment wasted she settled down on his freshly-vacated chair, smirking at the surprised looks she was getting from the other occupants of the booth. "Ow."

Suppressing a snort at the deadpan voice Kakashi made, she curled her head to the side to look over her shoulder. "In case you were wondering, that was for lying to me." She left the rest vague, waving over a waitress and ordering a drink. "And if you can't remember, maybe you should think of cutting back in the smut?" Those words, coming from a 16 year old, were certainly not expected by the other Shinobi around the table.

"Hey, uhh, Kakashi, mind intro-...-ducing us?" A red-eyed woman asked Kakashi, but looked at her eyes and shook her head, turning to look at Kakashi as he slowly got up from his spot on the floor. "Never mind. Kakashi, why didn't you tell us you knew the Crimson Medic?" The woman looked ready to put a hole in Kakashi's forehead, though the man ignored her in favor snatching another chair and sitting down, his one visible eye watching Akari warily. "Oh whatever." She refocused on Akari, a smile on her face. "Well, I'm Kurenai. I, uh, well, I want to say thank you."

Kurenai then bowed her head, tapping against the table gently before rising again. As Akari opened her mouth to question her, she elaborated. "My father was injured by a gas attack during an assault in Suna. Damn fools 'forgot' he and his team were in the area. He got out, but he was left blinded." Akari nodded her head, seeing what the woman was getting at.

"Well you're very welcome. I mean...I made the Golan seals because I wanted to help my brother after he lost his own eyes, but, since they can be useful for so many people, I don't really think it'd be very 'firey' of me to keep them from other Konoha shinobi who gave near-everything to fight for the village." Snorting at the wording Akari chose, one of the other Shinobi raised his glass.

"Words to live by!" The others raised their own glasses and matched his words, aside from Akari who didn't have a drink but still said the words, and Kakashi, who was still groaning a little about the kick in the balls.

He turned to Akari. "Did you really have to kick so hard?" He asked with a frown, though hidden behind his mask still visible in the contours.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" At the same time, she subtly kicked off two legs of his chair, sending him back to the floor with a thud.

* * *

"Okay, do it."

After a few (dozen) drinks at the bar, which wasn't a fun experience for Akari considering she couldn't seem to actually get drunk, either because of her Chakra or her Gamer abilities she didn't know, she all but dragged Kakashi to a training ground to learn the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu from him. "Couldn't you have gotten literally anyone else to do this?" Despite his whining, Kakashi pressed his fingers into a cross, while at the same time Akari watched, her Sharingan spinning as a puff of Chakra smoke appeared. A few moments later, a box appeared in the corner of her vision, though she ignored it in favor of grinning.

"Cool. And no, you owe me one, so fuck you." She said, zipping over to the clone of Kakashi and prodding it with a finger. "That's really weird. I know they're meant to be solid, that's the whole point, but the potential for these guys..." During the walk over, Akari basically picked Kakashi's brain clean on information for Shadow Clones, like the fact that once dispersed, they send all the remaining Chakra back to the host. But, more importantly, they also send back memories. Whatever the clone experienced, the user would experience, but in a far more brief period. Kakashi likened it to reading an entire book in a second, and still somehow comprehending every page you read.

Trying to define it further was just too much of a hassle for the lazy ninja. "Whatever." Picking a book from his pouches, Kakashi flipped to a dog-eared page and began reading, already wandering off. Ignoring his perversions, Akari opened her menu, dismissing the notification on her vision and instead focusing on the new technique she just picked up.

**Shadow Clone Jutsu - Take the regular Bunshin. Mix on some more chakra. Then more. Then, just for good measure, a large sprinkle of more chakra. Voilá! You have a Shadow Clone. This Bunshin is corporeal, it can hit a foe, it can carry things, it can even (With an extra-large helping of Chakra) take a hit without dispersing. But, the best part? It shares its memories when it disperses. Enjoy! Usage - 150CP/cast, lasts 1 hour, every 10CP extra grants extra hour.**

With a grin, Akari pushed her fingers into a cross seal and took a breath. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" With a puff of smoke and a modest drain on her Chakra, an identical clone of herself appeared, shaking her head lightly before stretching out, clicking her fingers, shaking her hands about and hopping from place to place. It was pretty amusing to watch, but Akari had it in her mind that she would order the clone to do some basic movements, make sure it worked alright.

Evidently the clone picked up on what she wanted and began doing it without even her own input, as if it knew what she was planning, which would come in handy. Creating a few more clones, each fueled with several hours worth of Chakra, she let them go about the training ground, leaping from branch to branch, slipping through undergrowth, generally practising to ensure they weren't inferior to the original.

As they did that, Akari took out a notepad and pen, because fuck using a scroll and brush, from her inventory, settling down on the ground with her legs crossed. She began planning out everything she needed to test before she personally went into a rift. Like how long they lasted, how far she could go from the rift before it closed, how to close them manually, just to make sure she could close the one she'd opened already.

Right now she'd set up a seal around it and told Hiruzen that she messed something up and had to put a seal up to keep it contained. Nothing too dangerous as long as nothing messed with the seal, and that she'd fix it as soon as she could. He believed it. He wasn't happy that she'd basically made a small chunk of the training ground unusable, but the seal only took up a few square meters of space so it wasn't the end of the world or anything.

Going down the list, Akari winced as one of the clones slipped on a branch and smashed into it nose-first, dispelling abruptly and flooding her memory with exactly what it got up to. The strangest part though was how the memories were handled. She could actually recall near-everything the clone did for a few moments, though none of it was very interesting. Then, she forgot almost all of it. She could vaguely recall what her clone did, but not very well.

Mentally sending out a command for two clones to disperse at once, they did so, sending two conflicting memory streams into her mind, yet for some reason she could still assimilate all the information just fine. Shaking her head as she recalled Kakashi's attempted explanation, she created a new clone. "You know what to do?" The clone snorted, holding her hand out and taking the notepad from Akari's hand. The clone then wandered off to go sit against a tree, tapping their chin with the pen and occasionally writing something down.

The clones retained her memories and ideas, and so could be used to do menial tasks that she'd be able to do. Using this, Akari basically told that clone that she wanted her to go sit down and try to come up with any ideas she'd missed, any safeguards she'd have to get a clone to test before it would be safe enough for her to go through the rift. She also was experimenting with items the clones carried.

The clones appeared wearing the gear she was wearing, and they all had the same Kunai and Senbon she had when using the Jutsu, but they didn't have her knives for some reason. The one she just made also didn't have the notepad she was carrying. The rules behind that Jutsu were just...wacky, they didn't make any sense. With a shrug, Akari created a dozen clones to join those currently leaping through the forest, wincing at the chakra drain. It wasn't a ridiculous amount, a little more than first-stage Susanoo, but it wasn't a fun feeling draining her Chakra to such an extent.

Sighing, she began walking home to her apartment, idly wondering what to cook that evening.

* * *

"Not doing it, do it yourself."

Okay, so maybe clones weren't the be-all and end-all fix she thought they'd be. She realized on the way home that she could get a clone to do the cooking and she could go have a shower. However, it seemed they didn't just get her thought-process and reasoning, they also got her stubbornness. "Okay, if I do half of it, will you handle the other half?"

The clone tilted her head and finally nodded. "Sure." Okay, so it seemed that as long as she was willing to do the work right alongside them they'd be willing. But then she thought about the clone who was still at the training ground writing down things she'd have to test with the rift she'd make before she would go through. That clone seemed happy enough to do the work, so...

"Hang on, is it just when I'm doing dumb menial tasks that you guys will get snippy with me?" The clone grinned and stuck her thumb up. "Fuck sake. I was even going to brag to Hiruzen about how he could have just make shadow clones to do all his paperwork. Hey, do you reckon he could still do it, just get a few clones to take some of the strain off?" Her clone shrugged.

"I dunno. I mean, if you were doing the paperwork right alongside me I'd be fine with it. If you made a dozen of us and told us to do the paperwork while you went out to go get drunk we'd probably all just scribble over the pages then disperse, but that's with our own mentality, his clones could be more amicable to it considering his age, or your could be less, we don't know." The clone made a reasonable point, it was really weird talking to someone who went through the same thoughts as she did.

Stretching her arms out, Akari gestured towards the kitchen. "Well, you got anything, in particular, you think we should make?"

* * *

"Hmm, what's this?"

A figure approached the barrier in the training ground, one Hiruzen himself had to grant access to. Laying a hand against the barrier, the mysterious person clicked their teeth, funnelling chakra into the Barrier Shattering Technique, having plenty of chakra to spare without relying on others as the technique typically require. A substantial hole in the barrier was formed as the barrier chakra was forced away from the area, redirected just long enough to allow the intruder to step inside.

"Well now, I wonder whose been playing with Space-Time Ninjutsu..." They formed a clone to enter the rift, folding their arms over and watching as their identical mimic pushed its arm into the tear, then the rest of their body, swiftly vanishing into seemingly nothingness. A minute or two passed before the clone dispersed. "Ahh, very interesting. Well then..."

With little fanfare, the figure strode into the rift confidently. A few seconds later and Akari arrived, having been alerted that her barrier had been manipulated somehow. "Oh fuck." She muttered, spotting the barrier failing and the rift inside rippling, the edges crackling and pulsing violently. Just beyond, she made out a sliver of fabric disappearing within. Making a split-second decision, she used her Shunshin, charging at the rift and hurling herself inside.

In a desolate field scarcely visited, the rift, having been open too long, snapped shut like the jaws of a crocodile.

* * *

**Dun dun duu!**

**The rift has closed, leaving Akari and a mysterious figure stranded on the other side. Who opened the barrier? What did they see on the other side which made them walk through it? Why was Akari such a goddamn hero and followed them? Find out next time on Drago-...err, War Dog!**

**(Also, I don't know which of you lovelies it was who did it, but, to whoever tried to donate money to me through the unmentionable website (The fact Fanfiction don't even let you say it is really stupid), I honestly from the bottom of my heart say thank you, you made my day. Knowing someone enjoyed my stories enough to even try...3 Thank you!)**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 1456/48000**

**To Next Level: 46544**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm on a roll, three chapters finished within a week, hooray!**

**Also, for anyone wondering, I do sometimes go a little bit...insane with myself, so if the start of chapter 13 confused you...I have about as many clues as to my own thought process as you all do!**

**Now, before AAAAAANY of you all get annoyed at my decision for who went through the portal, I've deliberately added my reasoning at the bottom of the reveal section. If it annoys you and you want to say it's dumb and not read the story, just have a look at my explanation and you'll see why I had them go through.**

_**Chapter 14**_

* * *

Blinking, Akari got up, having somehow ended up laying down, and looked around, shivering lightly.

Her surroundings were not anything like the lush green forests of Konoha. Instead of a landscape teeming with shrubs and life, it was a desolate wasteland of snow, rocky crags, dead trees and just, in general, a miserable time. It...honestly looked a little like the Land of Iron with its mountains and snow. What was worse though was the fact that it was absolutely freezing. Tetsu no Kuni was cold, but it had absolutely nothing on the frost-bitten winds and icy ground she was now stood upon. Circulating a little fire chakra throughout her body helped mitigate the risk of frostbite, but it was still noticeably chilly.

Looking down at the snow around her, Akari frowned. She knew, for her eyes didn't lie to her, that she'd seen a piece of fabric disappear into the rift before the inky darkness obscured it completely. But, looking around at the thick layer of snow, there was no evidence of someone being recently in the area. None of the snow was disturbed.

A tearing sound suddenly interrupted her, bringing Akari about to see the rent in reality fluctuating as the top and bottom stretched out widely before sling-shotting closed, snapping the entire thing closed, a whip-cracking sound marking the event as air blasted into the space the hole once occupied. "Fuck..." Akari muttered, looking at the empty air. She knew, looking at the other side, that the portal was soon to close, but she hoped that she'd find whoever came through stood surprised on the other side so she could just snatch them and run back through before it closed.

"It stand to reason that _you_ would be the one to create this." Whipping her head around, one hand already fisted around the handle of a Kunai, Akari looked up into a tree to see someone she was not expecting. Clad in his jonin vest, crouched atop a branch and peering at her with slitted golden eyes, was none other than the Sannin himself, Orochimaru.

"Are you fucking kidding me? W-" Akari rubbed her face. "Why the fuck did you go through that rift?" The sannin waved a hand around, his eyes never leaving Akari's.

"Because you are the first to ever make a rift capable of travelling to another world entirely. In the few hours I've been here, using some simple experiments, I at first ascertained that I was in a wide-area jutsu which affects basic principles of our world such as gravity, air resistance, and the like. But then I turned my eyes skyward." He flicked his gaze up, to which Akari did the same, shrugging when after a few seconds all she saw was stars. "Are you really so foolish child?"

Frowning, Akari crossed her arms. "Look, I don't spend nearly as much time stargazing as I do travelling, killing people, and looking after brats, so get to the fucking point snake-eyes." Ignoring the insult, Orochimaru jumped from his perch, landing beside Akari without disturbing the snow. Looking down for a brief moment, she saw that he was using the same technique for the walking on...water. "Okay, I'll give you that, not realizing I could do that was...admittedly, pretty foolish."

Snow is water but in a solid form. As such, using a more refined version of the water-walking technique would allow someone to traverse the snow without disturbing it. Akari had never had to deal with snow since going to the Land of Iron 5 years ago, and she didn't have a jonin to tell her in case she ever did need to go into a snowy country, so she didn't know. "While it amuses me for you to admit such a thing, that is not the only thing you should be more aware of."

Pointing out several stars, the Sannin looked down at Akari. "That is the Cresting constellation. Right there is the Lavra. The Vulpes Twins." His finger wandered around the sky as he pointed out various constellations, to which Akari nodded along and made thoughtful noises. After a minute he frowned. "You don't get it to do you?" With a grin, Akari shook her head. "Whelp." Growling, Akari pointed a finger up at the sky.

"Listen snake-fucker, as I said, I don't spend my days looking up at the skies when I need to be focused on the ground, the here and now, y'know?" Pointing out a line of stars, Akari snapped her fingers. "Oh wow, it's the line-constellation of who gives a shit. Now please, what exactly am I missing here which is so groundbreaking?"

Hissing his disapproval, Orochimaru shook his head. "Fool. Fine. These constellations are in the wrong place. Many of the ones I have observed are not even visible in any recognizable shape." Akari just gave him a blank look. "We are on another planet entirely!" Shrugging, Akari waved her hand around.

"Yeah, I get that." Orochimaru face-faulted, looking at Akari with surprise. "I mean, I am the one who made the rift, I knew it was going to take me to another world. I would have liked to have gotten more time to make sure I can actually, y'know, get us home, but hey, you want to waltz right into a tear in reality, be my guest. On that note, why the hell did you do that?"

With a nonchalant wave of his hand, the snake sannin began walking away. "I have a way home. Unfortunately for you, it requires an anchor in our world, one which you do not have. As such, while I can return to our world, you are, unfortunately, trapped here. That is, if you are unable to open another...'rift'." He left unsaid that it means her Sharingan eyes were also trapped in this new world, but there were plenty of other, more available targets to trick and steal from.

"Wait, hang on a second." Akari went back mentally through their conversation. "Did you just say 'hours'?" Now it was Orochimaru's turn to be surprised, looking at Akari closely. "Because I saw the tail-end of your vest disappear into the rift only a few seconds before I went through myself." Peering closely at her, the sannin ascertained that she wasn't trying to trick him, leaning back with a grin on his face.

"Fascinating."

* * *

**So, Orochimaru.**

**Now now, before you all get annoyed, hear me out. He had safeguards. Firstly, he sent a clone through first to check the area out, so he knew he could survive standing there. Secondly, he already has several individuals in his labs who have cursed seals, and as such his subordinates out in places beyond Konoha could revive him, so even if he were to die, they would be able to bring his consciousness back using said cursed seals. He can also choose to abandon his current body and return to the seal, though it means he can't go back to that body.**

**I know, I know, it doesn't match the timeline, he shouldn't be able to use the seals in such a way as he hasn't got his teeth into Jugo yet, but screw it, it's my story, and Orochimaru is scary smart, he figured it out early, so there!**

**Besides, Akari has already met Orochimaru, and dislikes him based on the fact that he pulled her away from healing people during the Third Shinobi War so she could fight. He dislikes her because she holds absolutely no respect for him, calling him Snake-Face and a 'Has-been Shinobi'.**

**There is more to this chapter, I wanted to add this before anyone gets angry and starts ranting about how Orochimaru shouldn't have been the one 'dumb' enough to have gone through a mysterious rift in reality. Enjoy the rest of the chapter!**

* * *

"This flora is fascinating."

Akari was really starting to regret having ever gone through that damn portal. Every ten steps the blasted sannin would see something new and interesting to investigate, like a weirdly-shaped leaf, or a glowing bush of berries. And, every time it happened, he would pull a notepad out and document various things Akari was too bored to care about. More than once she'd looked across their rudimentary camp in the clearing they'd appeared in to find him cross-legged with several vials and containers strewn about, his notepad filled with scribbling she couldn't decipher.

Sure, they were in a new world, cool. Didn't mean he had to literally note down every single thing which was different. Broad strokes man! Of course, she didn't say any of this aloud. While she was confident in her strength, she didn't want to antagonize the sannin, not when he was the only other...set of hands. "Uhh, hey Orochimaru-san?" Her pointed use of the san suffix rather than sama was noticed by the sannin, but her vocal inflection was enough to hold Orochimaru's retort off as he gave her his attention. "Couldn't we have just gotten shadow clones to build the camp and do some scouting?"

The sannin looked at her, then away, then back at her, then away and back a second time, his expression unchanging. "I wonder if perhaps my first assumption was correct and a wide-area jutsu is afflicting us. To not think of such a basic and useful solution to our manpower shortage..." The sannin formed a cross-seal and poofed three shadow clones into existence. "These three will handle scouting of the area. As I seem to be the only one of us documenting our finds I feel my clones will be more useful for finding and recording anomalies."

Rolling her eyes, Akari formed her own cross, two dozen clones appearing. "Cool, I'll just get mine to set up a better camp and hunt some food I guess." Without a word, though a slight grin, at Orochimaru's faintly surprised face, Akari let her clones get to work, half immediately running full-tilt into the forest with Kunai and senbon at hand. The other half began working on the camp the pair had built, which consisted of a lean-to they made to shelter any items they wanted to keep dry, a small camp-fire, and a single tent which Akari had within a ' storage seal'.

She actually had it in her inventory, but she could use seals to explain retrieving a few items. Of course, there was a certain point where suspension of disbelief would stop working, and he'd demand a full inventory of what she was carrying. She couldn't tell him that she was carrying over a hundred swords, several thousand Kunai, even more Senbon, alongside her normal knives, which were still contained within seals on her arms, one of the few things she actually did have sealed, and a bunch of miscellaneous items.

Taking the Subtle Knife out of her inventory, Akari flicked it about in her hand a few times, drawing Orochimaru's eye for a second with the flickering blade before he dismissed her again. Not to be unexpected, since the knife looked pretty plain. At a glance, it certainly didn't look particularly dangerous. She wanted to just cut a hole in reality right then and there, then send a clone through and see if it came back out in Konoha.

But then she'd have to explain to Orochimaru as to just how she managed to find or create a knife which could cut through literal reality in order to create a rift. Right now he was running off the idea that she used some kind of space-time ninjutsu or fuinjutsu, and she hadn't said anything in any way proving him right or wrong. He definitely wanted to know, and didn't seem above violence to get what he wanted, but the fact that she was the only one who knew how she did it stayed his hand. It also helped that he was far too engrossed in his research to care, for the time being at least.

"Oh wow." Akari felt one of her clones disperse, sending back memories of a 6-legged mammal, which looked a little like a panther, except of course for the extra two legs, leaping at its face and biting the clones head off. "We may want to be more careful, there's hostile fauna on the planet." When the sannin raised an eyebrow, she huffed and pulled out a notepad, doodling down a rough sketch of the creature. "That thing just attacked one of my clones."

The sannin took the notepad and committed her drawing to memory, handing the paper back with a hum. "I shall...inform my clones to be wary of such creatures, though I do believe the Forest of Death has far more dangerous fauna." Akari shook her head with a smirk, remembering the few times she'd gone in there. It was a pretty good place to train in tree-hopping and fighting against summoned animals, as typically summons were far larger than regular animals, and as such the creatures in the forest of death were perfect for training to fight against them.

Standing up, Akari cracked her shoulders, looking around and yawning. "Right, well, I'm gonna go get some sleep. The fuinjutsu should tell us if anything comes close, and if not that then the clones, so we probably don't need to set a watch up." Orochimaru waved her off, too busy messing with the plants he had taken samples of to give her more than a very uchiha-esque 'Hn.'

Unzipping the entrance to the tent, Akari threw herself onto her bag and closed her eyes.

As Akari disappeared, Orochimaru's gaze snapped up, a twisted smirk on his face as he put his notepad to the side. This was it. The opportunity to study a Sharingan, with no risk. Nobody to find the body. And, better yet, nobody to interrupt. It was a weakness, he knew, but he oh so loved to see the terror in the eyes of his subjects as they realized the full extent of what they were now trapped within. He never forgot his goal, to forget the frailty of human life and not achieve his purpose of gaining immortality would be unthinkable, but he still allowed himself these small pleasures.

It didn't hurt after all to...indulge every once in a while. And, from what the brat had absent-mindedly remarked, he had a very long time to enjoy himself, as well as learning all the little nuances he could about the famed 'copy-wheel eyes' of the Uchiha. It was a shame that he wouldn't be able to take them back, his Juinjutsu taking just his soul, not his body nor anything he was carrying. As such, even if the girl had some kind of special ability, he wouldn't be able to make use of it, not unless it was something he could torture out of her.

If it was perhaps a hidden secondary Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha, it would be...regrettable, but at least he would learn of it. Biting his thumb, he silently made the hand seals for the Kuchiyose, summoning a small snake with brown scales and a white strip up his back. He pulled the sword of Kusanagi from his mouth and held it for the snake to inspect before hissing over it, spraying the weapon with his venom.

That particular snake was not one he summoned often, preferring to use his own poisons, but he had access to none of those, so would have to make do. Aiming his blade, he pointed it directly at the tent where the brats legs would be laying and extended the sword, plunging straight through the tent walls and into his target. He retracted the blade and observed it.

A small amount of blood, and very little venom. He smirked. This was going to be fun.

* * *

**You have rested. Health and Chakra have been fully re-filled. All negative, non-permanent afflictions removed.**

**Your chakra is bound by a powerful seal. CP total reduced by 99%. CP Regeneration halved.**

Blearily blinking her eyes, Akari groaned as she felt something coarse rub against her leg.

Trying to move, she felt the bindings holding her arms behind her back tightly, her hands carefully wrapped to ensure she can't form seals with either one. She slowly attempted to use her stomach muscles to lever herself upright, but spotted the familiar black marks of Fuinjutsu on her midriff, somehow preventing her from getting up. Twisting to get a good look at the location she was in, she noted idly that the stone formations of the cave she was in made absolutely no sense, with sideways speleothems somehow growing out of the walls.

Rolling her head downwards, she observed the stone block she was laying on top of, testing her motions and grimacing when she found herself unable to move more than a few inches in any direction. "Hohoho, as expected of the Crimson Medic and Kyuubi Jinchuriki, already awake." She turned to glare at the sannin who had just entered. "That venom was strong enough to put Jonin on their backs for weeks, yet only eight hours and already awake? Interesting."

Suppressing the urge to somehow magically rip her bindings apart and strangle the treacherous sannin to death, she settled for glaring at him, surreptitiously feeling out the seal on her stomach with what little chakra she could scrape together. The seal was well-written. Not to Kushina or Minato's level, but enough to throw any Fuinjutsu master for a loop trying to remove it.

Pressing a tiny amount of chakra into the seal to begin trying to disarm it, she absently listened as Orochimaru described how he was going to torture her for her Jutsu secrets and everything she knew about the Sharingan before taking her eyes and using them himself to practice. Then, the idiot went on to grand-stand about how he was going to get his hands on a pair of Sharingan back in their world, and how she so sadly wouldn't be able to ever see it, being here, and dead.

He then mused about how he might keep her alive here, a test-subject in a place nobody would ever find, after finding out how she opened the portal in the first place. Of course, the bastard forgot that nearly all of that relied on her actually giving in to whatever inane torture scheme he'd cooked up. Not to toot her own horn, but it wasn't as though she was unused to pain. "You know, you're forgetting one thing here snake-fucker." The sannin glared at her, though she just grinned. "I'm not exactly afraid of pain."

The sannin then smirked, a wide, toothy thing, his eyes glinting malevolently. "Ahh, but you see, you aren't the only shinobi in this world who was used to pain. Torture and Interrogation, however, they have methods which don't rely on such a crude thing as physical pain. As I'm sure you are aware, other methods are far more...applicable. And don't think you can merely break out of here..."

Without warning the speleothems stabbed together, crashing loudly in an explosion of stone, several fragments pelting her body and leaving small cuts. Akari frowned. Surely a Genjutsu would count as a negative and non-permanent affliction, so presumably he just used a Jutsu and tried to trick her...right?

Then, she spotted a mop of bright yellow hair, and huffed. "Orochimaru, do you really think I'm an idiot? Of course that isn't fucking Naruto." His signature laugh pealed through the air, sending a chill down her spine. Naruto, or at least what looked like Naruto, stepped out from behind the stones, his eyes wide and quivering as she looked between her and the sideways stone formations in fear and hope.

"But of course." The stone ruthlessly crushed Naruto's body, sending blood and guts everywhere, startling Akari with how offputtingly...real it was. 'That doesn't mean you don't unconsciously see him as Naruto.' Orochimaru left the trick unsaid, watching with gleaming eyes as Akari peered at the bloody pile of flesh which used to be a facsimile of the boy she'd looked after for years. "This...is just a taste. Now, you can tell me what I wish to know and I will not see a need to continue, or you can be difficult, and, while you will still break eventually, rest assured I will extract my pound of flesh for you wasting my time."

Akari grinned, breaking the bindings on her wrist by sending the minuscule amount of chakra she had into her arms and forming an edge of wind, directly manipulating the chakra to do so and slicing her back something fierce with the uncontrolled wind. She hadn't done very much nature manipulation, instead using regular Jutsu which formed the chakra into the different natures on its own. As such, the chakra was feral and untamed, lashing out every which way before she reverted it to regular chakra.

"Go ahead and try it you bastard." She flexed her arms, small cuts already receding from slashes her uncontrolled wind chakra gave her. She still had to deal with the seal on her stomach holding basically all of her chakra away from her, leaving her with few choices. But...

"Impossible." Orochimaru let his voice slip into true surprise as he met Akari's eyes, which were spiralling black pinwheels, her flower-like crest spinning around in circles as she glared at him. "How have you done this?!" He yelled, pulling the sword of Kusanagi out and glaring straight back at her. It shouldn't have been possible for her to use even the first stage of Sharingan with her chakra sealed, and yet, here she was before him, her Mangekyo spinning away at him despite the seal on her body.

"As someone wise once said..." Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. Was she really about to tell him how she was able to ignore his seal and use her Dojutsu?

"...Fuck you that's how."

* * *

**I couldn't resist.**

**There's the revised version. No crossover BS. No stupidity. Just Orochi showing his true colours and Akari revealing that she isn't afraid of taking on a sannin if she has to. And don't worry, Akari isn't going to just bullshit her way out of this, there's a logical plan she has for escaping his clutches. The Sharingan thing I just really wanted to say because it's cool.**

**She's only going to be off-world for chapter 15, then she'll be back home, I don't plan on keeping her away for long. I realized how bad of an idea it was to even do it, but I kinda...have a fun plan in mind, so instead of re-doing the ending of 13, I'm just doing this instead.**

**Please, reviews are love, I love reading them.**

**Now then...I do have a pat reon, but I have no idea what kind of rewards to put on there. If any of you can think of something good to add, please send me a message or leave a review and tell me. I'd LOVE to hear them. So far all I've come up with is putting chapter previews on there. That's kind of...it really.**

**Till next time!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 1567/48000**

**To Next Level: 46433**

**Title: ****Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**


	15. Chapter 15

**I just had a really scary Jutsu idea.**

**Imagine forcing medical chakra into a target completely uncontrolled aside from in location, allowing it to replicate cells at ridiculous rates, like, for example inside of the Aorta, or in the brain, or eyes? It would grow a tumor in seconds...That's not a fun idea...****No, Akari is NEVER going to use it, she's far too much of a direct-combat fighter, with med-nin stuff in reserve to heal herself and her allies. ****I struggle enough to get her to use Jutsu! My mind doesn't work in that way, I'm very two-dimensional when it comes to combat. Melee combat is my schtick.**

**...Well, aside from Megami no Te, because that's fun.**

_**Chapter 15**_

* * *

Akari used the two seconds of time she had with her Mangekyo while Orochimaru was distracted to call on Megami no Mon, naming Jiyara and Kanza, the two Iwa missing-nin she'd killed a few years ago on the border of Kusagakure. The sannin was still staring in shock, though his eyes twitched away from her to look as the two spectres formed beside her, clutching Kunai in their hands.

She declined to give either of them free will, immediately ordering them to distract and attack Orochimaru by any means necessary, just in general to stop him following her immediately. At the same time, Akari bolted, leaping off the table and running as swiftly as she could, hearing the sounds of battle behind her as the two immortal spectres battled with the sannin. He attempted to summon snakes to chase Akari down, but the spectres were wary for tricks, stabbing the snakes and making them disperse.

For a pair of missing-nin Chunin, they worked exceptionally well together, and because they had absolutely no fear, nor nothing to fear, they were able to hold their own, shrugging off his attacks with ease. The reason for this was that Akari realized something important about Megami no Mon. At no point did it specify that Akari has to have a lot of chakra, she just has to be able to activate her Mangekyo, and then wait five seconds as the spectres are summoned. As such, the two spectres only had 100CP, but as long as they didn't use any jutsu, they'd be absolutely fine, and could fight for the full 100 minutes without hindrance.

Ducking under a low-hanging stalactite, Akari spotted daylight ahead of her, the cave having been illuminated by bioluminescent fungi. Redoubling her speed, she bolted out of the opening, wary for traps, before shutting her eyes and feeling for her clones, who were still out in the forest. Grinning, she opened her eyes again, looking down at the seal on her body.

It was made to hold back her chakra. But, the problem with the seal was that it wasn't expecting a sudden influx of more chakra. Orochimaru knew that there was nobody around to push extra chakra into the seal...but he forgot about her clones. Mentally, she commanded all but two of her shadow clones to disperse at exactly the same time. As the did so, she ignored the memories they gave and focused on shunting every drop of chakra her body now had right into that seal.

It glowed blue as it tried desperately to devour the chakra. Then, as she was distracted focusing on the seal, a fist found itself buried in her stomach, shattering her concentration and dispersing her chakra. "Kukuku, I don't think so little Uchiha." The sannin hissed as he looked around. "A good trick. I wonder how you summoned those two...It can't have been the Edo-Tensei, there's no way Hiruzen or Minato-" He spat the names like curses. "-would have let you learn such a thing. I shall enjoy pulling those answers from your mind."

Akari closed her eyes, her mind racing through plans and discarding them just as quickly. With her chakra dispersed and absorbed by the seal, she couldn't overload it. Two shadow clones would never be enough. She could feel the two spectres trapped underneath a mass of snakes, far too many for them to push their way out, they'd be no help. She could also feel that with that punch, several of her ribs had fractured, one of which was dangerously close to puncturing her lung. She didn't have time to check her HP, but she was fairly confident that one attack dealt a hefty blow, more than the loss of a hand or a stabbing gave her.

As her mind raced through these possibilities, she felt a pull on her nape, followed by her stomach flipping as she was forcibly pulled into herself. **"Kit." **She heard the Kyuubi's voice, surprised that he managed to pull her in somehow. Her seal wasn't designed to allow him to do that, she had to be the one to enter her mindscape. **"Kit!" **But it was undoubtable, that pull was irresistible and she could feel the Kyuubi's breath on her body as he huffed at her. "**KIT!"**

The Kyuubi's thunderous voice finally snapped Akari out of her thoughts, her eyes snapping up to meet his in surprise. "K-kyuubi?" She asked, confused. The fox huffed and sat down, putting his chin against the ground to better see her. "How did you...you shouldn't have been able to do that." Sighing, Akari looked up at the ceiling, falling roughly to her back. "Not that it matters though. At least three cracked ribs, internal bleeding, virtually no chakra. I hate to say it, but I think I'm fucked." The giant fox glared down at her, before snorting.

**"Kit, you know...you're smart."** Akari's head jerked in surprise, turning to look at the massive fox. **"You showed me those...'golan seals' you designed, you were one of the two to write the seal currently holding me, and you managed to raise a Kit of your own when you were only twelve."** The fox then growled. **"And you're still completely missing what's sitting right in front of you."**

Akari blinked. Looked down at herself. Then back at the Kyuubi, who stared back, implacable. "Am I really that dumb?" The Kyuubi nodded, a grin coming across his face. "I really hate myself right now." Pulling herself up from where she was laying on the ground, Akari approached the giant fox, slipping through the bars easily. "Well, I don't think anyone planned on it, myself included, but...I guess we're partners then Kyuu-"

The fox cut her off. **"Kurama. And don't assume that just because of this we're equals. I hate to admit it but...I trust you, Ningen." **Akari smirked, hopping up onto the paw he placed in front of her and carefully balancing as he raised her up towards the paper seal holding him back. **"This isn't permission for you to use my chakra as and when you wish it, you got that brat?" **Akari smiled, patting his paw, as she gripped the fuinjutsu-covered paper and prepared to tear it away.

"Crystal clear."

* * *

As Orochimaru made to bind Akari with a Jutsu, thinking her passed-out, she exploded.

Not literally exploded, obviously. It would be more accurate to say that her chakra exploded. Taking several hurried steps back, Orochimaru observed as she opened her eyes, which were slitted and blood-red, to stare at him. Without a word, she pressed her hands together into a seal, spawning a half-dozen clones and sending them away. At the same time, Orochimaru prepared himself to summon Manda, noting that the seal on her body was gone, the space being taken up by the familiar spiral seal which held the Kyuubi.

He wasn't yet comfortable summoning the Boss-snake, he took a very large amount of chakra, and would demand tribute for whenever he was dragged into a fight, especially as today was not one of the days he was willing to be summoned, but Uchiha Akari was definitely too dangerous to take lightly. Best to deal with her before she got used to the sudden influx of nine-tails chakra she was receiving. As he bit his thumb to perform the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, Akari's eyes began pinwheeling again, the girl falling to one knee as she used the same strange Edo-Tensei-esque ability to summon..."Impossible."

Chuckling softly, Akari muttered out the few words which would doom the Sannin. "Grant free will." Then looked up. Stood beside her, blinking and glancing around himself, was the Fourth Hokage himself, Namikaze Minato. "Hey there Minato." She grinned when he snapped his eyes to look first at her, then at her stomach, assessing the seal and grimacing. To him, it was obvious that the seal had broken somehow, but he didn't know the full story. "Minato, questions later. For now, Orochimaru is our enemy. He tried to torture and experiment on me, he wants to steal a Sharingan and he said something about how it would let him become immortal...somehow."

Akari shrugged, her spinning eyes recording every inch of Minato's surprise-locked face. "How did you...I'm..." He shook his head, drawing out a familiar Kunai. "I'll trust in your judgment, Akari. But, you and I are going to be having words after this." At this point, Orochimaru had pulled himself out of his surprise, and finished the Kuchiyose, summoning Manda.

**"Orochimaru! You bastard! You'd better have a damn good reason for summoning me like this!"** From his position atop the massive snake's head, he glared down at Akari, reasoning that killing her would dispel the technique. **"Oh? Isn't that the blonde menace, that 'Hokage' who died to the demon-fox?"** Akari could hear Orochimaru talking to the snake, but couldn't make out any of his words. Instead, she turned her attention to her stats, glad to see that her chakra had come back in full, and her Chakra Points were surrounded in a red border.

Glancing down into her perks, she frowned, at the same time prodding at her ribs and checking to make sure they were actually repaired. They were, but she'd probably have to break a few to re-set them, as they weren't lined up quite correctly, though that could wait. She read what her updated perk said and grimaced.

**Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed Fox - Active/1 Tail - You are now channelling the Chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Will use Chakra directly from Bijuu's pool. Prolonged use will result in burnt Tenketsu, followed by cell death. Quantity usable will vary dependent on quantity of tails used.**

Shaking her head, she spoke softly to Minato. "Listen. In this form, you can use any technique, but you only have a certain amount of Chakra before you disappear. It's twice my maximum quantity, but since I'm channelling Bijuu chakra...I don't know how that'll affect it. So...just be careful, okay Minato?" The blond turned around to give her a cheeky grin before throwing his Kunai out, pressing his fingers into a cross. "Why do I even bother?"

"Taju Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" From the single weapon, dozens of other Kunai appeared, all with the Hiraishin formula bound to their handles. Many pinged away, reflected by Manda's scales, but several remained wedged in at spots, which was all the Kage needed. As Akari stayed back, watching Orochimaru warily, she heard a weird whirling sound. Turning her gaze away from the sannin for a brief moment, her eyes widened as Minato formed a blue ball over his hand.

Then he disappeared. Twisting her head, she flickered her gaze all over Manda, then the surrounding area, spotting no sign of him. Orochimaru was equally surprised, as was the giant snake, all three of them watching and waiting to see what would happen. "Ra-" Orochimaru span around...too slowly. "-SENGAN!" Coming up from behind him, Minato slammed his Jutsu directly into the Sannin's face, ripping his head apart in a single move.

The man didn't waste any time forming another and throwing it downwards, drilling through the boss summons head and forcing him to dispel swiftly before he could perform any sort of revenge. He then Hiraishin'd again, appearing back beside Akari with a grin, sticking his fingers up in a v shape. "I win." Akari shook her head, a smile on her lips. Before she could say anything though, the man fell to one side, his legs disintegrating. "What the-?"

Akari blinked, looking between him and her chakra. She didn't know how much chakra his 'Rasengan' or his Hiraishin used, but surely it wasn't enough to use up nearly ten thousand points of chakra. 'Hey Kurama, you got any idea why he'd be disappearing already?' She asked the Bijuu in her head, getting a noncommital noise in response. She quickly planted Minato's head on her thighs, a soft smile on her face. "Minato. Hey, it's okay, you got him. I can just summon you again. I...wanted to wait until Naruto was a chunin before meeting his parents..." Minato was sharp, he looked at her, the question on his lips, before he shook his head and planted a smile on his face.

"Then I'll be waiting." And he was gone to the wind, his body disintegrating into a fine white mist which dissipated into the air as though it was never there. Sighing softly, Akari made to stand up, her legs cramping, when motion from Orochimaru's direction caught her attention.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me." Muttering, Akari watched as his corpse jerked around. Then, his throat opened up like a goddamn flower, regurgitating an identical clone of Orochimaru, but one which had a head, his eyes open and glaring at her. As soon as he was standing, he opened his jaws, bringing forth his sword out of the head of a snake which came up his throat. "Okay, that's fucking disgusting."

The sannin ignored her, levelling his blade and trying to hit her. Unfortunately for him, her Sharingan made the quickly-extending sword look like a caterpillar, allowing her to easily avoid the attack and begin rushing him, pulling both her knives from her inventory. As he retracted the overly-long blade and made to slice at her, she stepped underneath it, coming up under his armpit and lunging forward with one blade, the other ready for if he brought another weapon to bear.

She was right to make that decision, though not for a blade. Out of his sleeve, several snakes emerged and lunged for her face, forcing her to slash at them, while Orochimaru used the handle of his sword to force her knife away, before attempting to bisect her hand. She retracted that hand quickly and ducked down, swinging her leg around to trip him.

The snake-summoner hopped just barely over her leg and lashed out with his sword, extending it enough to threaten her face and force her to roll away, jumping up and facing him again, growling. One of the snakes which came from his sleeve managed to get its fangs into her wrist before she could avoid or kill it, and it was...irritating. She could feel the Kyuu-Kurama's chakra burning away at the venom, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Smirking, Akari opened her lips. "You know, despite how much I want to rip you into a hundred pieces and feed you to Monty...I do have to thank you." The sannin raised an eyebrow. "If you didn't summon that oversized future-shoeskin snake, I wouldn't have figured out a way home." The sannin looked confused for a few seconds before realization dawned upon him.

"I'm glad to see you've realized that. Though, I regret to inform you that it doesn't matter. you won't be seeing Konoha again." With that, their fight continued, occasional Jutsu being thrown into the mix as Akari pressed the sannin hard, and was pushed back just as fiercely. Once more he regurgitated a body for himself when Akari got a lucky hit and slashed out his eyes, but it was plain as day that the technique seriously exhausted him. She figured from the way he was very cautious about using Jutsu, he was on his last legs.

Ducking backwards from a horizontal swing, she flicked her gaze up into the trees for a brief moment, spotting her clones ready and waiting for her signal. As Orochimaru followed through with a thrust, she flared her chakra, bringing all the clones out to buy her a few seconds while she concentrated. Two poofed out of existence within the first two seconds, three more caught and killed within the next ten as the man desperately tried to reach Akari before she finished her Jutsu, to no avail. As he destroyed the last two clones, Akari finished her jutsu, grinning from ear to ear as he looked up at her. "Susanoo!"

In the midst of her Level 3 Susanoo, she brought a longsword of pure chakra down upon the man, then scraped it across the ground as he dodged to the side, forcing him to back away or be swept along. Bringing both arms to grip the weapon, she reformed it into a spear, thrusting outwards and growling as he evaded the attack. The Susanoo was an incredible defensive and strong technique, but it wasn't very manoeuvrable. But, it didn't have to be if she hit everywhere simultaneously.

"Impromptu Jutsu: Hammerfall!" Akari yelled to surprise the sannin and keep him off-guard, forming the weapon in her Susanoo's hands into an absolutely colossal hammer, the head at least twenty meters across. Giving him no more time to react, she brought her constructs arms down hard, completely obliterating the area the sannin was stood in, before immediately dropping the technique and gasping. She'd had to drop channelling the Ky-Kurama, feeling her skin burning was too distracting, and so she only had thirty-five seconds before the stage 3 Susanoo completely drained her Chakra stores, having brought it into existence from absolutely nothing.

As the hammer flaked away into nothingness, she peered at the area she's struck, which had a massive crater dug into it by the weapon. There, at the bottom, was a considerably flatter Orochimaru. Smirking in victory, she dragged herself to her feet, nearly tripping several times as she approached. When she got to the edge of the pit, she slumped down, leaning against the raised earth which rimmed the hole, staring down at the defeated sannin. She'd done it. Defeated a treacherous sannin. She had help from the Yondaime, sure, but- "No."

She shook her head, eyes wide as she peered down at the corpse. "You're not allowed." She let a tear fall down her cheek. He was twitching. She had nothing left, her chakra was all used up. All her clones were gone, and she was already feeling the mental strain from having so many clones disperse in one day. What she would call her strongest ever attack hadn't killed him. And her body felt drained, having been forcibly healed by Kurama's chakra for such a long time took its toll. Even if her ribs were healed, she could feel that her body wouldn't hold together channelling any more Bijuu chakra, she wasn't even remotely accustomed to it.

She turned away, pressing a hand to her forehead as she heard the sound of Orochimaru regurgitating a new body for himself. A few seconds later, unsteady footsteps began padding their way towards her. She couldn't use Megami no Mon, she'd already used it the allotted three times in 24 hours. She could maybe dredge up one Great Fireball thanks to her natural regeneration, but he would probably just avoid it.

As she turned her head to see the triumphant smirk on the snake-bastards face as he looked down at her, she blinked. She grinned. Then she opened her inventory, drew a random, unnamed blade, and with a second wind bursting energy into her legs, she slammed forwards and cut the snake-fuckers head off, falling exhausted past his headless body into the hole and rolling down, cutting herself several times on her own sword as she rolled uncontrolled down to the bottom, getting kicked in the face by Orochimaru as his body hit the bottom alongside her. As she lay there, blood streaming from her nose and cuts trickling blood all across her body, she laughed, long and hard as she looked up at unfamiliar skies, the body of a headless traitor beside her, his blood on her blade.

"I...win!"

**Title Earned - Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

* * *

"...Damn it Akari, why can't things be easy around you, hmm?"

Shrugging, Akari met Minato's gaze with a grin. She'd told him most of what had happened since he sealed Kurama into her and gotten his soul nibbled on. His eyes lost some of their shine when she mentioned that Kushina didn't survive the night, the unsealing of Kurama and Naruto's birth taking too much of a toll, even for her Uzumaki vitality. But she steamed ahead, going on to explain what had happened to the village, the troubles around the Uchiha being ostracized from the village, and the fact that she'd basically stolen the Tsuchikage's apprentice during a mission.

Okay, maybe not quite that, but seeing Minato's eyes bug out in surprise was definitely worth the small lie. "Hey, it's not my fault I keep getting dragged into crap. First it was my team all getting murdered, then it was killing hundreds of Shinobi with a single attack. And then I had to escort Hiruzen with you to Tetsu no Kuni, I could honestly go on for ages about how stupid my life is, but I won't bother." Akari lifted a stray snake scale up, one knocked off the colossal serpent when Minato's Rasengan chewed through its head. "Now, I tried using my knife to rip a hole back in reality, but every clone I send through them just remarks that they are all, every single one, not Konoha, no matter how many times I try to cut a hole."

Sighing, Akari flicked the scale upwards, letting it fall somewhere behind her as she shook her head. "I don't want to have to do this, but I need to know how to do a reverse-summon...As well as one eensie-weensie little other thing." Minato frowned, his eyes locked onto hers carefully.

"You know how dangerous a reverse-summon is?" Biting her lip, Akari nodded. Minato sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Okay, but only if you tell me what your plan is."

Humming, Akari leaned back. "Well, the idea is that I reverse-summon myself, appear in the summons territory, then even if they aren't willing to take on a summoner, I'd ask them to let me travel out of their realm and back to the Elemental Nations on foot. But-" She looked straight at Minato. "-If all else fails...I need you to use the Hiraishin on me."

Blinking, Minato shook his head. "That's too dangerous. The Hiraishin..." He stopped, facepalming, while Akari grinned. "I get it. You want me to Hiraishin you from the Summons territory to one of my old marks within Konoha, don't you?" Akari's grin widened as she nodded. "Okay, that could work. The only problem then is two-fold actually. First, you have to see if the Kuchiyose even works. Secondly, you have to not get killed by the summons clan if they decide they don't like you and want to kill you." Akari shrugged.

"I can handle it."

* * *

Cracking her fingers, Akari took a last good look at the world she was on.

It had been a little while, as she had to wait for Minato's rather absurd week-long cooldown before summoning him again, which meant she'd gotten used to the rather strange planet she was on. She'd had a single encounter with the six-legged panther, which somehow ended up with her sat against a tree, the panther planting its head on her lap as she pet it. The less questions asked the better, as the clone which ran into it could attest that it wasn't a naturally friendly creature by any stretch of the imagination.

But, it was time to leave. Before she'd dispelled Minato to wait for the cooldown, he'd taught her the hand-seals for the reverse-summoning technique, which was actually the same as the regular Kuchiyose, it was just that because she didn't have a contract, instead of pulling a summon into her area, she would be pulled into the summons area instead.

Taking a deep breath, she began forming the hand seals, her Mangekyo already active and ready to summon Minato if anything went wrong. As she formed the final hand seal, she slapped her hand against the ground, watching the black symbols spread out before condensing around her. A feeling similar to entering her mindscape gripped her, almost like being grabbed from behind and having your body flipped over, before everything went dark for a brief moment.

She regretted her Mangekyo at that moment, a headache erupting between her eyes at the image burned into her memory of something she shouldn't have looked at, but it was gone as quickly as it came, leaving her to stumble and nearly fall as she was unceremoniously spat out the other end of the technique. "Ohh, what's this~" A melodic voice met her ears, soft yet strong at the same time. "Oh, a human! It's been so long!"

Blinking the spots out of her vision, Akari looked around for the animal which spoke to her, but spotted nothing. "Come now girl, I may be an animal, but I'm not so daft as to merely sit on the ground." Looking upwards, Akari saw, sat in the tree, a hulking mass of black and white fur, lazily chewing on greenery as it watched her with midnight black eyes, framed by more black fur. Rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't just seeing things, Akari took in the animal in the trees...and lost it, falling on the ground and laughing.

The creature in the tree watching her...was none other than a panda!

* * *

**WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**

**My god, I enjoyed writing that fight so fucking muuuuuuuuch! Fuck yeeeeeeeeah, fuck you Oro-busu!**

**I seriously loved that. And I think that Minato disappearing is reasonable, since he immediately used a jutsu to create hundreds of Shadow Clone Kunai. Adding two Rasengan and two Hiraishin into the mix drained him far faster than he expected, running off of what is technically Akari's chakra, and not his own.**

**And, let's not forget where his is right now. Since he had to be pulled from the Shinigami's stomach, who presumably doesn't want to give up his prize, it meant he couldn't stick around for very long. Still sounds like a plot-hole?**

**Well how about because the Hiraishin is a Bullshit no Jutsu, but I wanted to use him because he's just the most beautiful and awesome guy in Naruto, seriously. I mean, Ebisu is obviously Best Boy, but still!**

**...OhgodNOTTHEPITCHFORKSAGAIN!**

**Also, Akari's closest summon animal is a Panda, who saw that coming? I think it fits. Akari is kinda solitary, only really spending time with Naruto. She's aggressive, but only when someone aggravates her, usually she's pretty placid about the work she has to do, killing people without really caring. And, above all else, she's awesome!**

**...**

**OKAY FINE I'LL ADMIT IT! I just wanted her to have Panda summons because Red Pandas are the most adorable thing ever. Even big cuddly Panthers have nothing on a cute little Red Panda!**

**Please, reviews are adored. Even just an "I liked this section." or "I didn't like this bit.", that's fine. I love hearing what you lovelies think, it really makes my day to know someone enjoyed this, and it helps immensely when someone points out things they didn't like.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 37023/48000**

**To Next Level: 10977**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**


	16. Chapter 16

**...**

**I'm going a bit nuts writing this right now.**

**I kinda cut back a bit, but I just can't stop now that I've started. Oh well. Don't forget, this is a 4th chapter, so the word count is misleading, it isn't quite as long as it seems.**

**And please, reviews are like...I dunno, I wouldn't say drugs, because those are usually bad for you. They're good, and we'll leave it at that! Please, leave one for me, I love reading them!**

_**Chapter 16**_

* * *

"...I'm sorry."

Blinking away the tears forming in her eyes from laughing so hard, Akari took in the panda currently grasping onto the side of a tree with her Sharingan. It looked like a regular giant panda from her old world, right down to the black-outlined eyes, flappy ears, and...considerable claws. "It is no matter." The panda solemnly intoned, shaking its head. "I know my kind are not known for being very dangerous animals in your Elemental Nations. Rest assured, just as the slugs have a place on your battlefields, so too do the pandas."

Eyeing the panda carefully, Akari couldn't help but agree. While her personal bias for thinking of pandas as fuzzy, adorable and harmless sort-of-bears, the beast currently climbing steadily down a tree in front of her was anything but harmless. At least 150kg of muscle and fur backed up by a chakra network which her Sharingan could see flowing. Even if she couldn't see the actual Tenketsu or 'veins' of chakra running through the panda's body, she could still detect chakra flowing in their body in a general flow, which was part of the way Jutsu were copied.

"So, uhh, hi I guess? I'm sorry, I didn't really come here actually looking for a summons." Those words froze the panda, who turned his head away from his climbing to look at her in surprise, to which she elaborated. "I got stuck on a whole other world, and I had to use this as a way home. I know summons can request to be summoned, so I was hoping to find a summons clan who had a signatory within Konoha. Then I could just tag along when they get summoned and I'd be back in Konoha just fine." After a few moments, the panda sighed, climbing across to the nearest thick branch and sitting atop it.

"And here I was hopeful that we'd finally found a summoner. Tell me child, do you know how the Kuchiyose no Jutsu works?" Akari waved her hand in a so-so fashion. "Well, allow me to elaborate. The Kuchiyose is not merely a method to find a summons animal. When you use it, it reads your soul, your very essence. Then, using said essence, it finds whatever summons being most closely relates to your own wants, needs, desires, motivations and other traits, then brings you to them. If you appeared within Ryuchi Cave, for example, it would mean you likely have traits the snakes would approve of and like to work with, such as ruthlessness. For the slugs, a helping hand would send you to them more often than not."

The panda adjusted his grip, the branch creaking ominously under his weight, though he paid it no mind. "And, what would match with pandas?" The large panda rumbled his amusement at her question.

"Well my girl, you recognized me on sight, what are pandas known for, hmm?" Akari shrugged.

"I dunno, most of the time they're portrayed as shy and gentle, but that really doesn't match me. I'm more of a front-line fighter. Though I guess they're..." The panda grinned, or as close to a grin as a panda could make, as Akari's jaw slackened. "I get it. It's because of how I treat Naruto isn't it? I look after him like a son, I'm protective as hell, and because of that, it's come over into being protective of people I like in general." The panda nodded once in agreement.

He stabbed his claws into the tree trunk again, climbing down the rest of the tree and talking all the while. "Correct. I do not know your history, nor who this Naruto character is, though from what I can gather you have a protective way of him. You mentioned 'like a son', so I presume that, while he is not of your blood, you treat him as such. Perhaps he even sees you as his own family. I do not wish to pry though, for I know that for one human to protect another's cub as their own son, means the cub has probably lost his own family." The mood turned sombre quickly, the panda settling down at the base of the tree and peering at her.

Akari rubbed her arm, looking around the dense forest. "Yeah, he did. I bear the consequences, but I know I got the best deal from that situation, by far. Naruto has neither a mother nor father, and he has to rely on me to protect him." Biting her lip, Akari turned away from the black eyes of the panda. When she heard soft footsteps, she turned back, wary of an attack, but surprised as the panda merely came to within a few feet of her and sat back down again.

"And yet, you speak both correctly, and incorrectly." Akari blinked in confusion. "You have looked after this cub for...-" Akari murmured an answer. "-for four years, and yet you still cannot see what is in front of you. You protect him, and, dare I say as I might be presumptuous, you love him as a son, even if you do not wish to acknowledge it." Akari opened her mouth to angrily argue that she was NOT, and would NEVER be Naruto's mother, but the panda cut her off. "You will not replace his mother, no, but the boy needs a mother figure in his life. And, though you consciously do not wish it, your mind will still adopt the role it is pressed into. You look after him as a mother, and you come to love him as such."

Shaking her head, Akari groaned. "I don't want to love him though, he isn't my son. If anything I want him to be like a little brother. Don't some girls have to look after younger brothers just like this? Why don't they start loving like that?" The panda chuffed out a laugh.

"Because my dear girl, they are bound by blood to see each other as siblings. You, on the other hand, have no such protection. While you are not quite at the age for this to truly influence you, your maternal instincts will still see the boy as a child to protect, and will respond accordingly." Akari put her knuckles to her temples with her eyes shut, growling lightly. The plan was to get in and out of the summons realm quickly, not to get into a debate about how she treated Naruto.

Centring herself, Akari opened her eyes and looked at the panda, who was peering back inquisitively. "Look, I just want to go back to Konoha. I can just use the Kuchiyose again if I want a summon, right?" The panda shook his head, surprising her. "Why not?"

"Because the Kuchiyose only works to find a summons animal once, and pandas were what was chosen. Either you leave here having signed the Panda contract, or you will have to find one currently within your realm to sign." Growling louder, she pinched her nose. "if it's any consolation, there are far worse summons clans to be tied to, and as mentioned, we are most definitely not to be underestimated."

Akari nodded her assent. "I know that much, I just...wasn't exactly planning to get a summon right now. Ahh, what the hell." She eyed the panda closely. "Well, how about it? You've been interrogating me this whole time, I'm sure you've judged whether you even want me as a summoner or not. What's the verdict?" Though momentarily surprised, the panda rolled back to sit upright.

"To speak bluntly, you are...rather woeful in terms of judging yourself. You refused to see the bond which was right in front of your face." As Akari slumped her shoulders and made to ask if she could leave then, the panda continued. "However, you have demonstrated that you would defend a child for years even not of your blood, showing your protectiveness. You are honest, perhaps a bad trait for one of your profession, but something we pandas value. And, though it may be crude to mention, you have the body to learn our techniques."

This time, Akari was genuinely taken aback. "Techniques?" The panda looked her up and down again, nodding.

"Yes. Why, my dear girl, you didn't think we pandas were merely strong, did you?" The 150kg beast then, in front of her eyes, disappeared. Akari's jaw dropped for a moment before she looked around, a feral grin on her lips.

"Oh you have to teach me that."

* * *

Akari ended up spending several days with the pandas.

The original plan called for a much shorter period, but after the revelations that Master Bao, as she was told to call him, sprung on her, she decided that she was going to sign the panda contract. Of course, that meant she had to prove her physical side to the pandas. Bao vouched for her, of course, but several of the others, who were more wary of summoners, demanded she complete a stealth and evasion test, as well as a body strength test, before they'd be willing to work with her.

As Master Bao was the one who had control over the contract, she could sign it at any moment, but that didn't mean she could summon those pandas. The rules stipulated in the panda contract specifically granted them the choice to refuse a summoner. They would be required to give a damn good reason, as summons were often relied upon heavily for their strong and out-of-the-box abilities, but they could refuse it. If the dissenters banded together, they could deny Akari a significant portion of the panda summons, and as such, she acquiesced to their demands of testing. That was what led to her spending a few days with Bao and training.

The issue with the stealth test was that it was tuned to test the panda abilities, specifically the art of camouflage. It wasn't genjutsu, the pandas actually exuded nature chakra around their bodies and used it almost like a mist, occluding their location to the naked eye. Even her regular Sharingan couldn't actually spot them when they were hiding. It was similar to Kirigakure's Hiding In The Mist assassination Jutsu, but different in that it didn't require monstrous levels of chakra to use. But, the hardest part of learning it was that her Sharingan was incapable of copying it.

When she remarked on this, Master Bao chuckled and explained that it was similar to the Sage mode, in that it was not a technique which required hand seals, and that it used Natural Chakra. The user would merely exude this chakra and hide within it, blending in near-seamlessly within a small cloud of illusion. The reason that was so hard to spot for the Sharingan was that the cloud took everything behind itself, as well as at all other angles, and placed it in front of itself, constantly changing to match the users perception. This was done to such a fine degree that even for the Sharingan's visual acuity, it was near-impossible to tell the difference.

Or at least, for the regular Sharingan. The Mangekyo was several degrees stronger than the regular Sharingan, and with that, she picked up on these minute errors. That still left a small area where, while she could see the trick, she didn't know exactly where in that cloud her target was. For someone who was used to seeing through all illusions, the reality that there were still things in the world which could hide from her eyes was rather chilling.

When the day of the test came up, having been granted several days to learn the ability from Bao and practice, she was taken out to a remote region in the forest and told to evade all hostiles in the region, find five golden leaves which had been planted somewhere within, and return, all without being caught, and only using the Mist-Walker ability. A single capture would result in failure. As that was announced, the panda who gave the order grimaced, knowing that it was rather unfair to expect that a human girl would be capable of evading pandas and other creatures in their home turf with an ability she didn't even know existed a few days ago.

Akari could have easily done it if she was allowed access to all of her abilities, but alas, she had to make do with Mistwalker. But...what a Jutsu!

**Kiri-Woka no Jutsu - Enshrouded in your own chakra, this Jutsu will allow you to evade the sight of near-all enemy Shinobi, as well as many of your allies. Imperceptible to the naked eye, but with the tiny risk of turning into stone, this ability can only be detected by high-level sensors and Dojutsu users. Usage - 5CP/s.**

Becoming invisible to practically everything but a damn good sensor, Byakugan user or Mangekyo user? That was really damn good. What worried her was the mention of potentially turning to stone. She brought it up to Bao, and though he was surprised at her knowledge, he revealed that just as Sage Mode, using the ability carried a risk of turning to stone if the user tried to draw the nature chakra into themselves. The reason he didn't mention it was simple. If she didn't know about it, there was no way she would draw it in, as she wouldn't have any idea of how to do such a thing. Drawing chakra from the surrounding area wasn't exactly something easy to do. Otherwise, tens of thousands of shinobi would have tried it, and subsequently become statues.

Accepting his knowledge, she waved off his worries about her maybe needing to practice any more, saying she learned it quickly thanks to her Sharingan. The reality was that as soon as a Jutsu was unlocked, there was no need for her to spend any more time other than the learn all its facets. Proficiencies were different, but that was because as she practised, she actively improved.

What she did spend some time doing however was looking through the few notifications she'd received and subsequently forgotten about. She could have opened them whilst waiting the week for Minato's cooldown to wear off, but they'd slipped her mind entirely. Leaning back against a tree, she flicked through them, dismissing the one about getting a new title as she'd already seen that.

**Orochimaru Defeated!**

**35,000 Exp earned.**

**Sword of Kusanagi received.**

While the experience was nice, the sword really sealed the deal. Of course, she would have killed the treacherous sannin anyway, but getting ahold of a legendary sword wasn't something she did every day. It wasn't relevant for her current situation, nor did her skills allow her to effectively use the weapon, but she knew that it was worth the investment to level her skill with swords to better use the weapon.

The test was honestly...rather depressingly easy. For a Shinobi as experienced as her, walking silently was practically mandated, and with her position being completely obscured, the pandas stood no chance. The only hard parts were actually getting ahold of the leaves, as they were rather sneakily hidden. To solve this, she normally would have sent out at least a dozen clones to scour the area and find them while she sat back, drink in one hand and food in the other, but as the rules said she couldn't use any other techniques, she made do with slowly searching the area.

A few hours later, she slunk back to the starting position, dropping off the five leaves and at the same time cancelling her Jutsu, before taking a knee and catching her breath. Her chakra pool was considerable, but when using 5 chakra points a second, she only had just over sixteen and a half minutes before it dropped, so she had to move, find a hiding place, drop the jutsu, recover her chakra, then enable Mist-Walker and continue on. It was rather exhausting, and the area just above her abdomen, where her chakra coils resided, felt rather worn out from the constant usage and regeneration of her Chakra. It sucked that she didn't regenerate whilst using a Jutsu, but it made sense, otherwise she'd be able to walk around under Henge forever.

The strength test was even more pitiful. They had to be sure that their summoner was physically strong enough to be worth their time, so they devised a test. The summoner would be deprived of all equipment, then told to climb a sheer cliff-face without using chakra, relying only on their physical strength. For Shinobi who frequently used chakra to strengthen their bodies, as well as those focused on long-range, this would be a nightmare. But Akari never had a teacher to learn unconscious or even conscious Chakra-enhancing from, and as such her body was physically as strong as her strength stat allowed.

Just out of curiosity, she used her barely-utilized ability to read other people on Master Bao, ignoring everything extra and snickering to herself when she saw the strength stat.

**Bao - Level 41**

**Strength - 63**

She had a strength stat of 55, meaning in a straight-up strength fight, the Panda which outweighed her by a ridiculous margin, would only be able to claim that he was about 14% stronger than she was. Of course, that didn't mean his other stats would allow such a victory, as he had much lower stats in other places to make up for the increased strength, whereas hers were balanced towards agility after strength, then vitality, so she could take a hit. By contrast, as he was a lower level, his stats were all inferior, making him overly strength-focused.

As such, she went into the test confident that she was plenty strong, and her stats most definitely didn't let her down, allowing her to climb up the rocks with rather amusing ease. The fact was that it wasn't just a strength trial, it was also a dexterity/agility trial, and her second-highest stat, only trailing behind strength by a measly five points, was in fact agility, allowing her to hop from outcrop to outcrop without slipping. At one point the rocks she'd grasped rolled straight out, as they were loose, but she just pivoted on her other hand and spun straight out of the path of the falling stone, using the newly excavated hole in the stone to continue the climb.

As she reached the top, she was met by a rather baffled set of unprepared pandas. When asked, Bao told her that they were expecting her to either fail, give up, or take three times as long as she did, on account of how..."unstable" the cliff-face was. As he put the speech marks in, the pair snickered. It was obvious the pandas didn't like her very much, and sabotaged her attempt to climb the face so they'd have an excuse to refuse her summons and laze about. As it was, she passed both the mandated tests with flying colours.

And, as she signed the contract, she could honestly say it was well worth the effort, since while she was practising, Bao very kindly got in contact with the Crow clan, whose summoner was actually an Uchiha, and after explaining that their summoner was stranded and needed to be reverse-summoned back to Konoha, Bao convinced them to reverse-summon their own summoner to the realm so he could inspect Akari and make sure she was actually of their village before taking her back to Konoha. Akari was fine with this, and sat waiting at the selected meeting point with her legs crossed over.

While she was a bit of a black sheep amongst the Uchiha, she knew that they wouldn't leave a fellow Shinobi stranded in the summons realm when all it'd take to bring her back was a single Jutsu. "Oh, hey there! Well whaddaya know, you actually are a Konoha nin! Wait a minute..." As she looked up, she was met with the same crimson eyes she regularly saw in the mirror, though they were only tomoe rather than her own special Mangekyo. "Kenso, why the hell didn't you tell me she was also an Uchiha?!"

She most definitely wasn't expecting the same boy she'd seen on the folder the Hokage gave her after her visit to Hideyoshi Depot. "Uhm...Shisui-san?" Her voice drew his attention from where he was looking around for the crow which brought him here. "if you don't mind, could we get back to Konoha? I've been away for at least a few days now and I'm...putting it bluntly, I'm worried about Naruto." The boy in front of her widened his eyes, quickly nodded and sticking a hand out.

"Uhh, sure Akari-san, I'll get you home asap." Smiling, she took his hand, preparing herself and feeling the bizarre inverted feeling of being reverse-summoned. As they landed on the other side, Akari's eyes immediately took in their surroundings, spotting the familiar Hokage monument and, without meaning to, letting out a sigh of relief. For her, it had actually been closer to two weeks than a few days, owing to how weirdly-different time passed on the world she and Orochi-busu were on. "I should probably tell you that Hokage-sama would like to see you, but I'm guessing you'd probably ignore me in favour of finding Naruto, right?" Akari grinned, using a Shunshin to disappear.

She quickly re-appeared a good distance away, her chakra drained by a third as she travelled slightly over a hundred meters. Looking back, she grinned at the surprised face of Shisui peering back at her, disappearing again in a short Shunshin and using the momentum of the Jutsu to start leaping from building to building, swiftly making her way home and plowing into the door.

With deft fingers, she slid her keys into the door and opened it, coming face to face with the surprised cycloptic gaze of Kakashi. "Uhh..." Was all she managed before an orange blur flew right past the man and into her legs, knocking her over with his speed and trying to choke the life out of her with his arms. Smiling, she looked down at Naruto, where he was burying his face into her stomach, trying and failing to suppress his tears.

Slowly, she wrapped her arms around him, carefully lifting him up to hug him properly as she walked into her apartment, eyeing Kakashi for a few moments before, much to his surprise, she smiled at him, giving him a gentle nod as she sat down on her sofa, Naruto still bundled up in her arms. Peeling his face away from her body for a moment, she tipped his head up to look at her, planting a soft kiss on his forehead as he stared at her with tear-rimmed azure eyes.

"I'm back cub..."

* * *

**So how's them apples? Bit of background, Akari gets a new Jutsu, we learn exactly what she got for killing Orochi-busu, she signs the panda contract, and Shisui brings her home. Alls well that ends well, except for the snakey bastard. The ending I think was also cute, Akari giving Kakashi an earnest nod of thanks for looking after Naruto while she was away somewhere else.**

**Up next in Akari's grand adventure...I have no fucking idea honestly. Maybe...ooh yeah, I have an idea. What's that, you want a hint? Okay then...uhh...27th-31rd of December, there's an obscure hint for you.**

**I do have a pat reon, if you have the cash and think I'm worth it, please throw some coin my way, there's a link on my profile, as Fanfiction seem to think the name of that site should never be mentioned.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 37217/48000**

**To Next Level: 10783**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**

* * *

**Techniques**

**Mystical Palm technique/Beginner - The catch-all medical ability. Able to regenerate wounds of varying degrees. Usage - 25CP/s. Heal-rate - 25HP/s. Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Novice - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Novice. Usage: 50CP/s. Heal-rate - 50HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlocking improved variant.**

**Mystical Palm technique/Graduate - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a Graduate****. Usage: 75CP/s. Heal-rate - 75HP/s. ****Can be levelled. Levelling will increase Chakra cost and Heal Rate.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlock****ing improved variant.**

**Fire Release: Great Fireball - A well-known Jutsu within the Uchiha Clan. Moulding Chakra within your lungs, you can expel flames as either a colossal ball of fire, or as a continuous stream of flame. Ball Usage - 150 CP/each. Stream Usage - 25CP/s.**

**Fire Release: Phoenix Flower ****\- This technique coats Shuriken, Kunai or Senbon in Fire Chakra, slightly hiding their exact location within the flames and causing extra damage. Usage - 15CP/weapon.**

**Substitution Jutsu - An Academy standard, the art of swapping your position with an inanimate object up to the same size as yourself when in imminent danger. Usage - 75CP/each.**

**Transformation Jutsu - Take another form and hide in plain sight. This ability puts an illusion over the user, but is easily disrupted. Target must be within 2 feet of height to caster, and within 50lbs of weight. Usage - 75CP/cast, 2CP/s to maintain.**

**Clone Jutsu - An illusionary non-corporeal clone. Great for distractions, but not much else. Upgrades into Shadow Clones, which are corporeal. Usage - 15CP/each.**

**Poison Extraction Jutsu - This ability drains poisons and foreign bodies from wounds. Length of time for extraction varies depending on strength and amount of poison. Usage - 100CP/s.**

**Shunshin - The pretty-much teleportation ability. This Jutsu acts by hyper-enhancing a Shinobi's abilities, essentially enabling them to run at absurd speed for a fraction of a second. Cost is calculated by distance. Usage 15CP/meter.**

**Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan - The eyes of a close relative. When in use, will no longer degrade visual acuity. Mangekyo Techniques will now also no longer damage eye-sight. Same abilities as regular Mangekyo Sharingan. Usage: 25CP/s.**

**Left Eye: Megami No Te (The Hand of Goddess) - This technique grants the user the ability to completely manipulate the ground around them within a fifty-meter radius. This requires great concentration but can be devastating if used correctly. Usage - 500CP/Cast, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Right Eye: Megami no Mon (Goddess's Gate) - This technique will summon forth a corporeal spectre from the Pure Lands to fight or act on your behalf. To use, the name of the Spectre must be invoked, and the face of the summoned one must be in Mind's Eye. Spectre will have 2x Player's Chakra amount, and will drain Chakra at 1% per minute. Can use all original techniques of Spectre, but will use Chakra to fuel them, leading to a faster disappearance. Will follow all orders of Summoner, and cannot be affected by Genjutsu or compulsion techniques. Can be granted free will to act autonomously, but will mean Spectre can attempt to use loopholes in orders to hinder summoner if they so wish. Usage - 25% of total Chakra pool, will immobilize Summoner for 5 second duration whilst Spectre is called forth.**

**Susanoo: As the user has both Mangekyo, the Susanoo has been unlocked, a large Chakra construct capable of being formed around the user for protection and offence. This construct can be summoned in multiple forms, each one being larger, more protective and with more abilities.**

**Level 1 - A rib-cage surrounds the user, protecting them from harm but lacking offence. The form will slowly grow until it is formed into a large skeletal structure, where musculature and skin will grow, finally forming into a giant humanoid: 500CP/Cast, 25CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 2 - Armour forms around the Susanoo for added protection, though it is not a complete protection: 1250CP/Cast from nothing, 500CP/Cast from Level 1, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 3 - The Susanoo will now form the final pieces of armour, becoming fully-enshrouded. The Susanoo will gain wings for flight, with Ornate robes over heavy armour granting the construct hefty defences. The Complete-body Susanoo is capable of summoning weaponry to assist it during battle: 2500CP/Cast from nothing, 1500CP/Cast from level 1, 1000CP/Cast from level 2, 100CP/s to maintain.**

**Mindspace - The presence of the Kyuubi within your seal has granted you the ability to enter your own mind. Experience earned within the Mindspace is reduced by 100%. Time is dilated by a factor of 100 within Mindspace. You may converse with the Kyuubi no Kitsune within your Mindspace. This action is recommended. No Chakra cost.**

**Fire Release: Flame Bullet - This Jutsu pools oil within the user's mouth, before firing then ignites said liquid in a bullet shape. Usage - 25CP/bullet.**

**Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder - By moulding Lightning-nature Chakra into your hands, you can release varying powers of electricity to stun or even kill your opponents. Usage - 25CP/s for stun, 75CP/s for lethal.**

**Earth Release: Rock Trail - This Jutsu spikes out a series of large rocks from the ground in a stream towards your target. Cost is dictated by distance between user and target. Usage - 25CP/meter.**

**Shadow Clone Jutsu - Take the regular Bunshin. Mix on some more chakra. Then more. Then, just for good measure, a large sprinkle of more chakra. Voilá! You have a Shadow Clone. This Bunshin is corporeal, it can hit a foe, it can carry things, it can even (With an extra-large helping of Chakra) take a hit without dispersing. But, the best part? It shares its memories when it disperses. Enjoy! Usage - 150CP/cast, lasts 1 hour, every 10CP extra grants extra hour.**

**Kiri-Woka no Jutsu - Enshrouded in your own chakra, this Jutsu will allow you to evade the sight of near-all enemy Shinobi, as well as many of your allies. Imperceptible to the naked eye, but with the tiny risk of turning into stone, this ability can only be detected by high-level sensors and Dojutsu users. Usage - 5CP/s.**

**Proficiencies**

**Uchiha Interceptor Fist - A Taijutsu form used by the Uchiha which makes the best possible usage of the Sharingan Dojutsu's predictive abilities to counter enemy attacks and bring victory. - Level 43 - 17.2%**

**Shurikenjutsu - The art of throwing pointy things. Pretty self-explanatory. - Level 37 - 6.7%**

**Bukijutsu - The way of the weapon. Covers all weaponry. - Level 53 - 61.3%**

**Knife-fighter - Using short-blades, daggers and Kunai in close-quarters combat. - Level 56- 11.8%**

**Fuinjutsu - Sealing arts. The practice of using ink to achieve your goals. - Level 67 - 93.4%**

**Mystical Palm - Ability to detect and heal wounds using linked Jutsu. - Level 51 - 12.2%**

**Polearm-user - The act of swinging a long thing with a pointy bit at the end. - Level 0 - 0.0% - Defunct -**

**Tree-running - Leaf Shinobi are trained to flit through trees, which increases their speed and concealment. - Level 37 - 97.1%**

**One-handed Seal usage - Using only one hand to make seals? You showoff. - Level 17 - 22.1%**

**Cooking - Really? This is a proficiency? Whatever. Your cooking skills have been noted. Now get out there and make more food! - Level 23 - 33.0%**

***e** C**d**s*** *a***r* - *o**e***** **a** ** * v****b** ***l* *** * *hi****, **tt*** **** ** f***a**** ***e. - Level 0 - 0.1%**

**Nature Manipulation - Direct manipulation grants increased versatility at the cost of less power. - Level 0 - 3.7%**

**Perks**

**Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed Fox - You now contain the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Can call upon Bijuu Chakra when needed to fight. Will turn your body more animalistic (when in use); Claws, Tails, Ears, Eyes will become similar to the Kyuubi. Potential to be ostracized by your village. Will become hunted by certain elements in future for your tenant. Mindspace Technique granted.**


	17. Chapter 17

**I crave serotoni-...uhh, reviews!**

**Moved apartments, so that was fun! Living room is choc-a-block with random boxes, but I felt like writing. Currently got internet through a mobile hotspot since the router is buried under the world's biggest game of tetris, but whatever!**

**So happy to hear that you guys enjoy this stuff! I really mean it when I say it means the world to me to hear that you enjoyed this. Follows and favourites are lovely, but reviews, where you spend time to actually say that you enjoyed something, or that you thought something would work better in another way, are just...so precious to me!**

**Thank you all!**

_**Chapter 17**_

* * *

"Uchiha Akari, the Hokage requests your presence."

Looking away from Naruto, she turned to stare at the masked visage of an ANBU, smirking as she inhaled. "Hey there Komachi, new mask?" The ANBU in question waited a few moments, staring at her intently, then grabbed her mask and threw it at Akari, eliciting a loud laugh from her even as she tried to reign it in for Naruto's sake, who was sleeping with his head on her lap, mumbling. "Hey, don't blame me that you always wear-" Komachi tossed one of the needles in her hair at Akari, bouncing it off her forehead and drawing a yelp of surprise.

Fortunately, Naruto was a pretty heavy sleeper, so he snoozed straight through the little spat. "Argh, what's the point in a fucking mask if you know who I am anyway?! Anyway, Hokage-sama wants to see you." She looked down at Naruto then back up at Akari. "If you want I'll look after the gaki for you?" Smiling, Akari nodded, subtly checking for Genjutsu and finding none. It was always better safe than sorry, especially involving Naruto, and Komachi didn't mind.

Brushing her hand through Naruto's hair a final time, she grabbed a pillow and carefully slid it between his head and her legs, lowering him down onto the sofa and smirking when he stuck his thumb into his mouth, pushing chakra into her eyes to memorize it with her Sharingan. "I'd appreciate that. So, you doing anything after this? Got a mission or something?" While she spoke, Akari made herself presentable, taming the rats nest her noticeably long hair became and leaving it in a long river running down to the small of her back.

Komachi shook her head, looking out the window. "Nah, I got a few senbon in the leg during my last mission, so the hospital wants me on light duties inside the village only, like delivering messages. But, with the Academy letting out a bunch of fresh Genin, there aren't even many of those, and no way in hell am I taking a fence-painting mission." Snorting, Akari turned away from the mirror she was stood at and grinned at the ANBU. "What?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing, just don't forget that you're talking to the only Shinobi in all of Konoha to have never done a D-rank." Akari nonchalantly buffed her nails on her vest, waiting for a few moments before adding. "And hell no I'm not gonna help them out when I finally get around to asking for a genin team of my own. Those brats can weed gardens and fix fences just fine on their own, I'll just sit pretty on a wall and watch. Anyways, wanted to ask if you want to go for Dango or something after I chat with the Hokage?"

Komachi rolled her eyes, but grinned at Akari. "Sure."

* * *

"Ahh, Uchiha-san, go right in."

Nodding to the woman sat at the desk beside the Hokage's door, she strode forward to push the two large doors open, frowning when she saw his advisors stood in the room, while the big man himself was looking out the window across Konoha, his expression not visible as he was facing away. It wasn't that she had anything against them, she just didn't like them too much, always far too focused on the village as a whole over the individual people. If it was necessary, they'd sacrifice thousands to give the village an advantage, and still sleep soundly at night.

While she understood the logic behind it, it certainly didn't give them any favor with her, so she merely grinned as usual and greeted them casually. "Koharu-san, Homura-san, Danzo-san." She tipped her head a tiny bit, the only real respect she gave them. She then faced the Hokage. "Hokage-sama." This time she knelt, waiting as he turned around and frowned.

"Akari-san, please, rise." She did so, watching as he walked to his desk and sat down, steeping his fingers. "Now, I know you just got back, but, well, we must know what even happened. As I recall, you mentioned you had some kind of unstable Jutsu trapped in a barrier seal in the 33rd training grounds, and to keep people from interfering while you found a way to handle it?" Akari nodded along to his words. "I presume this has something to do with that?"

Nodding again, Akari sighed, trying to think of the best way to start. "Well, the anomaly wasn't a Jutsu, it was a special ability of a weapon I came into ownership of recently." Slipping her hand into the pouch on her waist, she pulled the Subtle Knife from her inventory and displayed it. "I can't go into detail because I've not had the time to experiment, but this knife is capable of cutting...to put it simply, rifts. Where they go seems entirely random, and, as I said, I haven't been able to experiment with the limitations." Putting the knife away again, she waved her hand out towards the window.

"I opened one in the training grounds, which is why I came to you to ask about shadow clones. Those can go through the rifts, disperse on the other side, then tell me what the situation is like. Using those I can research a lot of the limitations the rifts have, see if there is any method to the rifts opening or if it is truly random, things like that." Folding her arms over, she huffed. "Unfortunately, a traitor broke my barrier and entered the rift." Hiruzen's eyes widened, though before he could ask questions Akari pressed on. "At the time, all I saw was the tail end of a jonin vest entering the rift, also spotting the edges of the hole fraying. Making an educated guess that the tunnel was about to close and strand whoever went through, I entered the rift as well."

Reaching an arm behind herself, Akari, out of sight of the other occupants in the room, withdrew the Sword of Kusanagi and laid it upon Hiruzen's table, earning a few surprised noises from the advisors, and a very grim line set on the Hokage's lips. Before Akari could elaborate, the Hokage looked up at her, his eyes firm. "And you mean to say that, with this, Orochimaru is a traitor?" Though unhappy with it, Akari nodded.

"I'd be willing to allow a Yamanaka select access to my memories to view what he had planned, though I have certain abilities I would prefer are not known by others." Hiruzen nodded, presuming that she meant her Mangekyo abilities, which was a reasonable thing to wish to hide from a clan of mind-readers. It was more to do with her ability to summon even great Shinobi like Minato which she wanted to hide, but there were also other things like the retrieval of a sword from her inventory.

Reaching out, he lifted the legendary sword, taking it in one hand and drawing it, eyeing the blade closely. "This truly is his blade. I was hoping he would not fall so far as to betray a fellow Konoha shinobi, but...the evidence he left behind here more than verifies this claim." Now it was Akari's turn to be confused. Spotting her look, the old Kage elaborated. "Orochimaru was...experimenting on Konoha orphans. He had several laboratories within Konoha itself, and who knows how many outside of Konoha. We've found some already, but I don't doubt that my old student had contingency plans in place for our finding his experiments."

He sheathed the Kusanagi and laid it down upon the table. "When he disappeared, we were in the midst of planning to catch him red-handed. We were going to confront him in a laboratory where he had several...subjects, some caged with others floating submerged in tubes. Of course, with his disappearance, that plan was annulled, but..." Sarutobi slumped in his chair, the weight of the world visible in the tiredness he displayed. "There was one survivor. Out of dozens. And they were all orphans of Konoha. If things were different, it might even have been Naruto to be floating in one of those tubes."

Though he didn't display it visibly too often, the Hokage was also rather protective of Naruto, owing to the fact that Minato saved the village, Kushina held back the Kyuubi for years, and Akari herself was now performing that same role. Of course, it didn't come close to the lengths Akari would go to just to protect him, but it was still touching. "Hokage-sama, if I may?" The man nodded. "What's done is done. What Orochimaru did was despicable, and he paid the ultimate price for it. All we can do it keep moving on. You said there was one survivor?" The old Kage nodded slowly. "Then make sure that, no matter what happens, he or she is treated right. We are in a strong position as a village. You have, just from the top of my head, dozens of elite-level Jonin and ANBU, hundreds of regular Jonin, and thousands of Chunin and Genin. You still have Jiraiya to rely upon, and I'm sure if worded correctly Tsunade could be brought back, even if only in a medical role. No matter what kind of powers that experimentation gave that survivor, do not let their potential power blind you of how much Konoha has failed them."

Taking a breath after her little speech, Akari folded her arms together. "And of course you have me as well. Just my humble opinion, Hokage-sama." The old man looked at her for a few seconds before smiling, a light chuckle coming from his lips.

"Better words could not be spoken. Now then..." The Kage had Akari recite her full report, before ordering her off for a weeks rest after fighting and defeating one of the three legendary sannin. She could have argued that because of the Kyuubi, she would have been good to go after only a few days, but the glint in his eyes told her two things. Firstly, he wanted her in the village just in case something happened in the aftermath of Orochimaru's death. But, more importantly, he was giving her an opening to spend time with Naruto, as well as... "And Akari-san?" He called just as she made to leave. She turned around to meet his eyes, his grin wide.

"...Enjoy your date."

* * *

*Thwack* "Ow, what the-oh."

Lowering the hand she used to bop the ANBU watching her apartment over the head, she planted her hands on her hips. "Tell Hiruzen about my and Komachi's dango visits, that's fine. But, frame them like a date and I'm putting itching powder in your mask, your underclothes, and all your normal gear as well." The owl-masked ANBU blanched behind his porcelain mask, waving his hands about, completely at odds with the image an ANBU would normally portray. "Don't try to say it wasn't you, you're the only one who follows me around everywhere, the other ANBU alternate between watching the apartment and tracking me."

Slouching, he mumbled a quiet "Hai...", ducking his head when she raised a fist to threaten him. With Fukuro's silence secured, she hopped across the gap between buildings, entering her apartment through the same window Komachi did, then almost tripping over the sink when she laid eyes on the unmasked ANBU. She was sat on her sofa, rigid as a pole, with Naruto muttering beside her. The problem? He had her right arm wrapped up in a vice-like grip, tightly enough that she couldn't slip it out. Suppressing a snort, she slipped up behind the pair, reaching over to coax Naruto's arms off of Komachi and onto her own, quickly switching her arms around to lift him up, all without waking him.

"Thanks." She whispered quietly to the red-faced ANBU, walking off to drop Naruto off into bed, quickly tucking him in with a peck on his forehead then leaving the room and pulling the door closed, but not before quickly scribbling a note that she was going out and that there was some food wrapped up in foil for him to eat on the side. With that, she walked back down the hallway, smiling at Komachi who returned it. "Well, shall we be off?"

Komachi nodded, getting up from the sofa and making for the window, only to have her arm gripped by Akari, then being pulled towards the door. "Oh no, we're not going out like that. God damn it, would it kill you to leave a building like a normal Shinobi once in a while?" She quickly whipped a finger up to silence Komachi, who had a smug grin and her lips open to retort. "I came in like that today, yes, but that was because I had you watching Naruto, I didn't want to leave you with him too long. Not that I don't trust ya, I do, honestly. I just know he can be a handful sometimes." She shivered slightly remembering some of the more...disgusting incidents around him. He was a joy to raise, sure, but even amazing things can be nightmares at the same time.

Placated, Komachi let herself be dragged across the apartment to the front door, casting a glance over at her abandoned ANBU gear. With a shrug, she decided to just leave it there. Akari once showed her the seals array she had set up across her apartment, and it was complicated enough to compete with the barrier surrounding Konoha itself in complexity and sheer mind-boggling fuckery. Komachi fancied herself as a bit of a seals user, but even she couldn't make heads or tails of the seals Akari used to protect her home.

However, in her eyes, that was a good thing. She knew how much Akari valued Naruto, and that she'd go to any lengths to protect him, so having a seal that even a seals user couldn't make anything out of meant trying to shut it down would be akin to reaching into a blender and sticking your fingers through the blades trying to find the off switch. And of course, that meant that leaving her ANBU gear in there would be arguably safer than putting it in an ANBU locker.

Stepping through the door and thanking Akari for holding it, she waited as the Uchiha closed the door, locked it, then pressed her hand against it to activate the seals attached to it, which also then leap-frogged across the invisible ink running along the ceiling to each entry point and activating all the seals there. Outside of Akari and Naruto, nobody could unlock those seals. If someone tried to, it'd send a warning to Akari thanks to a small invisible seal inked on her wrist, the signal running off the same seal matrix as the Hiraishin, but instead of transporting mass, which is hard, it just transported the small 'battery' of chakra rigged up to the seal, which would flare the seal on her wrist and tell her that her seal had been tampered with.

"So, which dango shop? I know there was one that opened on that long road between the Hyuuga compound and that Yakiniku place, according to Anko it's r-..." Akari stopped and winced. "How the fuck did I forget about her?" Blinking, Komachi raised an eyebrow. "Uhh, I don't actually know if I can even say anything, I think it involves an S-rank...ahh fuck it, I'll take the consequences, not like Hiruzen can kill me for telling ya. Orochimaru was a traitor and experimented on a bunch of orphans, and I killed him when I caused an...accident involving something I found. I won't bother elaborating, but...fuck. You have any idea where Anko would be about now? I haven't been in Konoha for a while so I don't know where she'll be."

Shaking her head, Komachi gestured towards the vague direction of the T&I building. "Well, I know she was hoping to apprentice over there once she was done apprenticing under the snake-sannin, maybe she'd be there?" She shrugged, not really knowing, but Akari latched onto it, quickly wrapping her up in a hug before darting off, jumping from building to building but stopping after a few moments and turning back to face her, beckoning her to come with her.

"Well come on then, let's go find her!"

* * *

Planting her chin on her hands, Anko looked around the room again, frowning.

She didn't know what was going on, she was supposed to meet her sensei a few days ago so she could demonstrate how much she'd improved on using the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands summoning Jutsu, but he never showed up to the training grounds that day. Or the next. On the third day, she'd finally gone to the Hokage to ask if he was being pulled away for a mission and didn't have time to tell her or something, but he told her nothing and in the end, she ended up just practising alone and wondering what the hell was going on.

She finally decided that if her sensei was busy she'd just get on with her other project, which was getting herself ingratiated with the T&I Shinobi, as that was where she wanted to end up after Orochimaru-sensei was finished with her. Thus, she ended up working with Shinobu Mibu for the day, sorting files, handling minor issues, and generally learning the lesser-known side of T&I. Most Shinobi saw it as a deep, dank and dark dungeon where criminals were thrown into and tortured for all they knew, then killed and dumped in a ditch.

That was definitely one of their prerogatives, but more often than not they worked side-by-side with the Uchiha Military Police to handle disputes. The mere presence of a T&I Chunin was usually enough to convince the arguing parties to settle their differences, and if not then they would act as a mediator. If it was too much to handle, it would then be pushed towards the higher-ups. If it went further still, it'd find its way into either Inoichi's hands, or sometimes even the Hokage's office, to handle.

After dealing with a few cases, Shinobu called that it was time for lunch, leading Anko along through the labyrinthian building to finally reach the cafeteria. It wasn't by accident that the building was so maze-like, any escaped Shinobi would have a hell of a time trying to find their way out once they were placed within the bowels of the building. "Hey Anko!" A cheery voice called across the room, startling the snake-summoner and making her yelp as she dropped her head from her hands, but stopped herself from falling before she could hit her head and embarrass herself even more.

Standing up and looking towards where the voice came from, a smile crept onto her face as she saw Akari stood next to someone she didn't know. She hadn't seen Akari for over half a week, so maybe she knew where Orochimaru had gotten off to. Perhaps they even went on the same mission. She snapped herself out of her thoughts before they could spiral however and raised a hand in greeting, wandering over quickly where the pair were waiting. "Heya Akari, and uhh...hi! I'm Anko." She stuck a hand out at the unidentified blonde, smiling all the while.

"Hi...I'm Komachi." The blonde stuck her own hand out and gripped Anko's, giving it a firm shake before releasing her and turning to slightly face Akari, subtly redirecting the conversation towards her. Following Komachi's lead, Anko looked at Akari, who looked a bit...uncomfortable.

"Right, well, uhh, we should probably talk about this somewhere private. Oh, and yeah, I have something to tell you, something kinda...sorta world-shatteringly big, so...yeah." Blinking, Anko looked at Komachi, who just shrugged and gestured at Akari. "So, you got anywhere good and private around here where we can talk? This might be a bit higher than I'm really meant to tell you, so probably best nobody overhears us by chance." She whispered the last part, wary of the people coming and going. Several gave their little group curious looks but bypassed them in favour of coming to and from the cafeteria.

"O-kay? Well, there's a few private offices a few hallways across we can use, they have silencing seals and can only be unlocked from the outside by Inoichi, so nobody can just accidentally walk in on us, that sound good?" Akari stuck a thumb up at her, and Komachi just looked a bit confused as to why Akari was going through the effort to do all this. Leading the group on, Anko sent occasional glances at the pair following her.

Her first impulsive thought was that it was a henge or something, but logic ruled that out instantly. Nobody emitting any kind of active-jutsu chakra were allowed inside the building, it was too high-profile to allow anything tricky like that. There was the minor chance they snuck in, but there were detection seals inked every dozen steps or so which would pick up on the foreign chakra signals and send a building-wide alert out of intruders. The building housed plenty of high-value targets and intel, so security was taken extremely seriously.

Her next, and more logic-based thought, was that something had happened to Orochimaru, and Akari wasn't supposed to tell her about it, but wanted to anyway, presumably to pay her back for looking after Monty and Naruto when Akari was unable to, and didn't have anyone else who were willing to look after not just her pet snake, but also look after Naruto. As Anko loved snakes and was pretty fond of Naruto, she was a perfect fit for looking after the pair when Akari got dragged into an emergency mission and had no time for a child and snake-minder.

Pushing open the door, Anko let the other two enter the room, closing the door behind herself before activating the seals attached to the door, which tied into the rest of the array when it closed, making the room about as private as possible. "Okay, now spill Akari, you know something. So, what's going on?" Sighing, Akari took one of the chairs in the room and rolled it towards Anko, setting another behind Komachi before sitting down herself with a slump, shifting so her chair came rolling to a stop beside Anko.

"Okay, I'm gonna just band-aid tear this for you, Orochimaru is dead." Anko's eyes widened drastically. Dead? He couldn't be dead, he was one of the three sannin, they were basically unbeatable. Whoever killed him must have been terrifying. "That's...not all though. He didn't die to...well, technically he did, but an enemy to him, not to Konoha." Anko let her confusion show plainly on her face.

"Wait, so...you aren't saying...he didn't?..." Akari reached an arm out and rubbed Anko's arm, a sympathetic look etched onto her face as Anko processed her words. "Oh Kami, he did..." Despite how strong she was, Anko still let a single tear roll down her cheek. Despite the aloofness, she was so grateful to the sannin for taking her under his wing and teaching her, letting her sign the snake-summons contract, and saving her from a miserable existence buried within the Genin corps. To hear that such a man actually became an enemy of Konoha before his death was heartbreaking.

Sighing, Akari let her hand roam up and down Anko's arm, providing some small measure of comfort to the teen. "I would...want to tell you he didn't suffer...that his end came after redemption or some bullshit like that, but I know you'd hate me for it. What I will say is that, in the end, I was the one to fight him." Anko's eyes snapped to her in disbelief. "Honestly. I tried to make it as painless as possible, but he didn't exactly want to go quietly, so it was a...brutal fight. I won in the end of course...but it was not a clean fight by any stretch of the imagination. If not for the Kyuubi-" She heard and subsequently ignored the growling from Kurama in favour of giving the staring Anko her full attention. "-then I wouldn't be sitting here today."

She licked her lips, having become dry during her talking, and stopped her arm, her hand resting atop Anko's shoulder. A few moments passed before Anko closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and centring herself. "I-" She bit her lip. "I need some space I think. I know you, Akari, I know you wouldn't lie to me, it's just that...I knew that man since I was 9 years old, and...it's hard to accept that he's dead, let alone that he'd betray the village." With a sympathetic smile, Akari pressed Anko's shoulder for a brief moment.

"It's fine. Just...ask the Hokage if you really have to know everything, I told him most of what happened, so he can fill you in if he deems it necessary. And of course, if he holds anything back and says it's a secret, next time I'm out of the village maybe Naruto and you could visit him. I'm sure his tongue would be looser if his unofficial grandson were to ask about it." Akari winked, jabbing her elbow gently into Anko's ribs and eliciting a light chuckle from the girl.

"Alright, alright, I get it, now shoo! I do have a job to do around here y'know!" Smiling at being able to draw Anko's normal side out a little, she stood up alongside Komachi, waiting as Anko unsealed the door. Unbidden, Komachi laid her own hand on Akari's shoulder. With a grin, she turned to look at her friend, who was smiling softly.

"So, dango?" Those two words were overheard by Anko, who immediately barreled over and demanded that they bring her back some. Chuckling at the contrast of Anko from the girl who needed space to the girl who wants a pile of dango, Akari promised to bring a few skewers over after they went out. As the left the room, Anko yelled something which made both of their ears burn red, whilst Akari silently cursed her low luck stat.

"Enjoy your date!"

* * *

**Ta-da!**

**This was fun to write. Dealing with the aftermath of what happened, and introducing a shiny new character who I've somehow already fallen in love with. Komachi is such a blank slate, so I can do basically anything I want with her. The only stipulations are that she's in ANBU, and she has big needles in her hair. So, having her suddenly coming in like that is fun.**

**I think I've figured out why my stories feel different to other peoples. I write 'inclusively'. It's like...trusting that you guys know most of the Naruto Universe, so I don't spend an hour explaining what characters look like, or how a Jutsu works, I just...write it. Because of that, it flows way better than me describing what all these different characters look like and their relationships. I let my writing do the talking.**

**And please, if you can, support me on Pat reon, it means the world to me, and I'd really appreciate the support! Hope you all enjoyed!**

* * *

**OMAKE:**

"ALRIGHT!"

As the Rolling Table came to a stop, a little green potion popped out.

**Stat Reset Potion!**

**All stats will be reset to their base amounts, and all points will be freely allocatable. Single-use.**

"Well, bottoms up!" Without another moment lost, Akari chugged down her potion, immediately feeling the effects as she moved lethargically, at least in comparison to what she was used to. With slow-moving hands she opened her stats menu and grinned. "Let's go for...this!" With one finger, she pressed down on the plus icon of a single stat and poured all two-hundred and thirty-five points into it, bring it to a grand total of 241.

Unbeknownst to Akari, upon doing this, Uchiha Madara, who was eating some thin soup, choked on his food and died of suffocation. When Black Zetsu appeared from a wall in surprise and tried to aid him, his foot caught on a branch, leaving his throat impaled on a deceptively-strong piece of wood. In a hidden lab, Orochimaru tripped up, his flailing hand hitting a button which released all the imprisoned orphans. His head then struck the side of a table, snapping his neck and instantly killing him.

"Hmm, don't feel luckier."

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 37221/48000**

**To Next Level: 10779**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**


	18. Chapter 18

**I noticed a mistake. Instead of fixing it with an edit, I decided I'll incorporate it as part of the story. The quests which get listed, only some of them actually exist, others I made up on the spot for pure comedic and reference value.**

**Hope you enjoy! And please, I have a pat reon on my profile, if you have a few spare coins, please consider supporting me!**

_**Chapter 18**_

* * *

Palming a kunai, Akari spun it a few times by the ring, releasing it at the apex of the swing and sending it hurtling towards the tiny wooden target in the distance, hearing the thunking noise as it parted wood, embedding itself deeply within the target.

Pulling another from her inventory, she began spinning it again, her eyes focused far more on her status screen than the now-automatic action of spinning and throwing kunai. When fighting Orochimaru, she realized that, for all her stats and abilities, there were some people in her new world who took her notion of strength, tramped on it, then pissed on the remains and lit them on fire with a Katon Jutsu. If she wanted to stay competitive and survive in this world, she had to get stronger. The problem was that, in all honesty, she'd hamstrung herself right out of the gate with her stat and perk choices.

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

She had decent stats...but against someone like Orochimaru? They meant fuck-all. Her strength was 55, and yet he was still stronger, even with the brief moments where she locked blades with him he was able to push aside her defence. Granted, she wasn't even level 50 yet, and she'd never actually observed the sannin to find out his level, but presumably, it was higher, a lot higher.

That fight revealed that her early decision to stick to what she was comfortable with, which was blade work, and shun using Jutsu's which weren't extremely useful or easy to use for her...was a crock of shite. If she didn't have access to Susanoo, her Shadow Clones, Megami no Mon, and her Sharingan, all of which used Chakra like water-spouts, she would have died a dozen times over after presumably being mentally tortured to give her secrets up to him.

Calculating it, she could use her Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan for 200 seconds before she was drained dry of Chakra. The Susanoo was even worse, needing a large portion of Chakra to even bring forth, leaving her with 3500, a mere 35 seconds of usage at absolute maximum. For some strange reason when using the Susanoo, her EMS stopped draining Chakra, but presumably that was incorporated into the -100CP/s cost of using the exceptionally powerful ability.

Granted, Megami no Mon didn't require Chakra persay, but if she had a full tank, she would lose 25% to summon one spectre, meaning that it too required a lot of Chakra, but would make her spectres more powerful as she got a larger and larger pool of Chakra.

The fact remained, however, that she had spent too many points early on in her progression on things she thought she'd want. Her strength was good, she could fend off regular Jonin just fine, and her agility allowed her to keep up with them. If that failed, her Sharingan would cover the gap for her. But, how that she looked at it, the really key stats she needed more than ever were Intelligence and Wisdom. Perhaps they'd also help with her slightly inane decision-making.

Knife-fighter was...good early on, when she could learn to wield her knives with extreme speed, increasing her proficiency at an unprecedented rate, but now, when she needed to pivot away from them and into something with a bit more staying power? Now, she regretted not taking something like Chakra Monster. Her medic-related perk would mean she would be able to push past the difficult chakra control, and as such she'd have twice as much chakra, which then would add onto the Wis x Int x 5 and give her a ton more Chakra.

But, her decisions were made, so now she just had to deal with it. First step? Try to find a way to remedy her mistakes. That step fell through instantly, as the game was...weirdly less forthcoming than earlier levels, where quests were rampant, giving large rewards for comparatively minor things. Now? She didn't even get a quest for getting home, or fighting Orochimaru, or anything of the sort? Sure, she got a title and his sword, but those weren't even close to what she'd expect from such a difficult fight.

It was almost like the game was...fucking with her.

* * *

**Thank Kami, you finally noticed it! I can get started now.**

Blinking away her momentary blindness, she quickly read what was in front of her and frowned. _'Eh?'_ Immediately trying to look around, she groaned when she realized she was in the same state as 7 years ago when she died in her old world and appeared here._ 'Can I have a body again please?'_ Immediately she felt the familiar feeling of flesh, curling her fingers and giving herself a once over. "Thank you. So...what do you mean by that?" More text appeared, scrolling quickly and making her eyes glaze over slightly.

**NoxCorp have been having...issues recently. I am still the same entity which you spoke to during your first arrival, but less than a universal-standard week ago, there was another being watching over your experience. Due to...unprofessional and inappropriate conduct, they have now been forcibly retired from their position. Now then, I understand you have questions, so allow me to cover a general basis of what has occurred before we continue.**

**Ahem.**

Unbidden, a smirk crept onto Akari's face as she recalled that the entity started its last explanation seven years ago with the exact same 'Ahem'.

**Your game, after being initialized by yours truly, was set to be overseen by U.O.273 - 2. Approximately three standard years after you appeared within the selected world, U.O.273 - 2 became...unhappy with his position, but was unable to progress to the role he wanted. As such, he began taking it out on his assigned reincarnates, one of which was yourself. To begin with, he started manipulating probability, causing the death of your team. He attempted to force a curse of hatred onto you, but the design behind the Mangekyo Sharingan you unlocked is hard-coded, so he could not cause such a thing.**

**From there, he went on to remove quest triggers, as well as disabling the buffs your (at the time) decent wisdom should have given, which would have according to calculations set you on the path of most strength. He then nerfed your stats and created the Rolling Table item, filling it with technically useful items. That item is typically meant to give comparatively-great items, though only once a year, not monthly.**

**What finally tipped us off to his actions though was when he removed the completion trigger for a quest you performed. You may not have noticed, but despite completing the 'Depot Duty' quest, you never received the promised 15,000 experience. He thought he'd gotten away with it, but it was noticed and set us on his case.**

**And so we come to now. We've removed him as the overseer of your world, alongside the others he has manipulated, and can now begin trying to remedy this issue. I must say I am now contractually obligated to say _'NoxCorp apologize for any injuries, fatalities, shed tears, signed contracts, broken hymens, crushed dreams, lost wills to live, stolen underwear, or otherwise problems and afflictions which may have resulted from this incident.'_ Sorry about that.**

"So, what you're saying is that this guy got pissed off that he didn't get a promotion and took it out on the people he was meant to be keeping an eye on?"

**"Precisely."**

"Wow, sounds like a douche-bag. So, what happens now?"

**"Now we attempt to remedy this issue. The first stage is to grant you the experience missed from removed quest triggers, listed as: 15,000 for 'Depot Duty', 7500 for 'Not the Gumdrop Button', with extra 5000 for completed bonus objective 'Be Good', 20,000 for unlisted bonus objective of 'End of the War', 'Insult Onoki the Fence-Sitter behind his back with at least three unique iterations of insult.', 15000 for removed quest trigger 'Brotherly Love', with bonus 500 per one-time Golan-seal use per unique person, totalling 279 people, for 139,500 earned, and finally, 50,000 for missing quest 'Snake-hunter', bringing the missing experience count to the grand total of 252,000 experience points."**

"That's..." Before Akari could continue, more text appeared.

**"Aside from that, several drops have not been dispensed, which include but are not limited to: Chakra-conduction Jutsu scroll, Concealment Shroud, randomized Summoning Contract, 371 Kunai, 1729 Senbon, 31 Plain Iron Swords, 2 Iron Chestplates. A full list of items will be made available after this is over.**

**"Now, you have a choice to make, player. You can take all these stockpiled rewards, including the missing experience, and forget about this situation. Or, you can take the second option. You will be taken from your world, with said world being placed in a temporal lock during the duration, and placed within a Universe completely of your choice for a duration also of your own choice though limited to an upper cap which has not been decided, then allowed to do whatever you wish for said duration without limitation. This includes manipulation of game mechanics. Upon returning to your previous world, you will re-take your old status."**

Akari quirked her jaw to the side. On one hand, that was a lot of stuff she could get. But, on the other, being able to, from the sounds of it, basically control reality itself for as long as she want and generally enjoy herself as recompense for their fuck-up sounded awesome. Indecision struck her, her mind tipping between the two. "Hey uhh, entity, sorry I don't have a name to call ya. I'm honestly stumped, so...hell, you didn't lead me wrong last time so I'll ask again, what do you think?" She got the impression that the entity was surprised she expressed herself as apologetic for not knowing its name, but it passed quickly.

**"In my honest opinion as to what I personally would do, I would select the second option. However, you also, as I have taken the liberty of observing your existence, have a child to look after, and as such, the bonus experience and item drops would be invaluable towards protecting him. Of course, either way, quests will be resumed correctly, with experience earned and drops correctly dispensed, but selecting the second option would be the inherently selfish option, as it only benefits you in a cathartic and pleasurable sense, it gives no tangible benefit."**

Nodding along, Akari grinned, her mind already made up. "Alright then entity, hit me with the first one!"

* * *

**Short as hell, I know.**

**But, I don't want to write into this direction any further until I hear what you guys think of this decision. Going back, I fucked up. I never gave Akari the depot duty experience. And her progression took a nose-dive at chapter 10. She levelled a single time between chapters 10 and 17. I could have just gone back and adjusted it, but I decided that incorporating it into the story is a fun idea.**

**I'll honestly admit it to you all, I fucked up. That's just it, I'm human, I'm fallible, and, more importantly, I don't plan shit. Because of that, sometimes I mess up, but since I freeform write anyway, I can just add it into the story at a later point, just like here.**

**Please tell me what you think. If people don't think it's a good idea, tell me so, and I'll...I don't know, I'll have to come up with something I guess. If you guys like this, then I'll be giving Akari that exp dump and whatnot, but if not I'll re-do the chapter and make something new up from scratch.**

**Oh, and don't expect this whole daily two uploads thing to happen often. Yesterday I had Prison of the Soul already written but I missed the 5PM upload so I waited till the next day, and then got really into writing Watching Rose C17, so yeah, this isn't going to happen very often at all.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 48**

**Age: 15**

**Experience: 35385/48000**

**To Next Level: 8615**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 30**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 30**

**Luck - 30**

**Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary**


	19. Chapter 19

**It's official, you all...PASS!**

**Okay, but seriously, you all pass the marker of awesomeness by a landslide. Fifty...thousand...views. That's...ridiculous. even averaged out across all chapters, that means that my story has been read over 2500 times! That's absolutely insane. Honestly, thank you all so much. I absolutely adore all the support you guys give me, and it's so awesome to hear you guys say that you enjoyed this stuff!**

**People seem alright with me using 'The Entity' to ret-con some of my really damn stupid mistakes, so we'll be sticking with that.**

_**Chapter 19**_

* * *

"Ow."

Dead-panning her voice, Akari slowly levered her torso up from the ground, wincing at the throbbing headache she had, then yelping in surprise as a pile of stuff dropped to the ground in front of her. A vellum-wrapped tube came flying out of the pile towards her, bopping her on the head before she could react. "Son of a bitch!" Throwing her hand out to catch the offending material, she contemplated tossing it back in the pile, but shrugged and instead put it in her inventory. "Y'know, you could have put all this stuff in my inventory."

**True, but this is more amusing.**

Yelping again, Akari stopped herself from falling over a scroll which rolled out of the pile under her foot. To anyone else, it would look like she was staring...no, glaring, at a randomly offensive bit of air as she steadied herself. "Oh, it's amusing huh? And what's up with you...oh, I guess you aren't done explaining?"

**Correct on both accounts. I shall be finishing my explanation, then leave you to your devices. Now, if you would open your status page, you will see the aforementioned 252,000 experience has been directly deposited into your system.**

Doing so, Akari focused on the important parts of her status, grinning widely to herself.

**Level: 53**

**Experience: 41385/53000**

**To Next Level: 11615**

_**25 Skill Points Available**_

Before she spoke again, she spotted a pop-up had appeared on the side of her vision and opened it, her jaw dropping in surprise.

_**Achievement Unlocked!**_

_**Reach Level 50.**_

_**Reward:**_

_**50 Skill Points**_

"Uhh, Entity, is that quite...correct?" She frowned when she didn't get a response, tapping the faintly-glowing box and watching with wary hope as those 50 points appeared aside her other 25. "Okay then...point taken, they really want to apologize for fucking up, gotcha." Not that she minded. Getting more power to cover her own fuck-up was always nice.

**This is...perplexing.**

"Hmm?" Akari didn't want to admit, it, but she was still distracted by the 75 points she now had. With that she could gain enough strength to move mountains, enough vitality and endurance to survive being sat on by Kurama, enough Luck to make every encounter a slapstick comedy of her opponents falling over.

**You haven't received the correct achievements either. There are milestones such as reaching level 25, travelling 100km, defeating 100 opponents, healing 100 allies, things such as that. These have apparently been skipped over as well. I wonder...**

The entity's words disappeared into thin air, leaving Akari frowning at nothingness. Evidently they were still trying to pick through everything that U.O.273-2 messed with while he was still in charge of her world. She idly focused on the different stats available for her to change, trying to decide how to split her points. 75 Skill Points was pretty major after all, being equal to 15 levels.

With a sigh, she began shoving items from the pile which appeared into her inventory, groaning when she realized that most of the Senbon had literally poured out in single parts, meaning over a thousand tiny metal rods to clean up. Some were attached to strips of cloth, like the one wrapped around her own thigh, but most were individual pieces, and it was annoying.

"Ooh." She remarked, her fingers wrapping around what at first glance appeared just be a piece of cloth like the others, just not studded with senbon, but was surprised when it turned out to actually be the aforementioned Concealment Shroud. According to the tooltip which appeared when she observed the item, it had a special property of concealing the identity of the user. As long as she wore it on her face, covering her nose and mouth, leaving only her eyes exposed, people wouldn't connect Akari Uchiha with who she was, in a really weird way. Even if she showed up wearing her normal gear, they would simply see her as...something else. "Weird." She tossed it into her inventory amongst the other items, dragging a few around to neaten up the slots.

Fortunately enough, items stacked in her inventory, so all the Senbon ended up in one icon, rather than several thousand. Granted, that was one of the boons to her so carelessly bolstering her strength and neglecting her Intelligence and Wisdom, she had more inventory slots than she could count, but they would still have been filled to the brim if she had to have every single senbon take a slot on its own.

Deftly avoiding the blade that was about to slice her fingers open, she took the sword up and peered at it before throwing it into her inventory. It was a pretty monotonous task, but at least it meant that she'd probably never have to buy another Kunai, Senbon or standard tanto, katana, or another bladed weapon, seeing as she had at least a couple of every kind of blade imaginable. Granted, they were standard, so they wouldn't hold up compared to something like the Kusanagi, but they could do in a pinch.

Speaking of the legendary Grass-Mowing Sword, she flicked the last few senbon into nothingness and scrolled to where she'd sorted all of her bladed weapons, drawing the double-edged jian out of her inventory and then swiping it from the sheath in silence, the well-maintained sheath barely making a hiss. She grimaced recalling movies where the drawing of a sword was accompanied by a loud metallic shing. For a shinobi, that noise would be a goddamn dinner bell.

Whipping the sword across in a horizontal strike, Akari smiled, focusing on the edge and observing the pop-up.

**Sword of Kusanagi - A legendary, unbreakable sword made by ancient and unknown means. Can be extended via imbuement of Chakra. Usage - 15CP/foot, will recede after three seconds.**

While the whole extension thing sounded awesome, the biggest deal for Akari was the unbreakable part. A sword which physically could not be broken sounded absolutely incredible. **"Heh, I bet a Tailed Beast ball would reduce that puny hunk of steel into slag."** She smiled to herself at Kurama's words. Considering how he could now see out of her eyes, he'd long-since learned of the fact that there was some kind of mysterious entity assisting Akari, granting her strange boons and leaving her stronger than before.

While he didn't know quite how far it went, he, in a strangely cordial way, acknowledged that Akari didn't truly need his power, and because of that, he stepped up when she finally met her match. "I don't know Kurama, it did say it's unbreakable. Anyway, you literally don't have anything to bet aside from Chakra, and you know my body can't handle it anyway."

That much was true. Even with the game supporting her, as soon as she attempted to draw more than a single tail of Chakra from Kurama, her body felt like it had been lit on fire, and her health bar started fluctuating strangely, jumping up and down, as did her health regeneration. After that incident, the two quickly decided that she would be practising using a single tail until she could hold it without burning her Tenketsu out.

**"Hmph, I still have centuries of age over you brat, I know things you would never learn elsewhere."** Humming nonchalantly, Akari threw another handful of Kunai into her inventory, listening to the giant fox prattle on about the things he'd seen in his long life which Akari would find valuable.** "-could even...you're not listening are you?"** Akari gave a shit-eating grin to Kurama mentally, taking a page from a certain lazy ninja she knew.

"Sorry, did you say something?"

* * *

After stuffing her inventory full of loot and placating Kurama for pretending to ignore him, Akari tried to recall exactly what she planned to do now.

She had those 75 points to spend, to which she immediately pressed twenty each into Intelligence and Wisdom, bringing her up to a grand total of 13000 Chakra Points. That was enough to summon over 80 Shadow Clones at once. And with a regeneration rate of 2500 per minute, she would be able to spam those clones out easily. She still couldn't manifest a level 3 Susanoo for more than two minutes, but considering how powerful that ability was, two minutes would afford her a great deal of time to absolutely annihilate her enemy. She could also use her Mangekyo for nearly eight and a half minutes straight without running dry of Chakra. Even if she decided to stay on the route of Bukijutsu, her Mangekyo would make her an unparalleled close-combat fighter thanks to the extremely advanced level of perception granted.

Tapping her chin, Akari shrugged to herself, trying to think of something to do. She still had a few days of mandatory break before she was allowed to undertake missions again. Naruto was currently working away happily at his calligraphy, owing to the fact that he was an Uzumaki. Akari wanted him to get a head-start, so when he was older he'd be able to rival his parents for Fuinjutsu skill.

Sei was probably teaching at the Academy still, so maybe she could pop in and say hello, as well as surreptitiously check out this crop of cute little genin. Komachi was probably off being an ANBU with her boyfriend Towa, and she hadn't spoken to Anko since revealing that Orochimaru was a traitor, so she was probably out as well. Sighing, Akari hopped up into one of the trees surrounding her little training grounds, easily spotting the Hokage monument and from that where the Hokage Tower, Mission Office and Shinobi Academy were.

Having them all underneath the largest monument in the village made finding them an absolute cake-walk. As she made to jump out of a tree, she stopped and first put some extra music on, enjoying the beautiful OST of Shadow of the Colossus, one of the few games she actually managed to get ahold of in her old world. Considering she lived in a lawless-zone, commodities like that were rarer than winning lottery tickets, so it was one of her treasured possessions.

Smiling as she remembered her little hovel, one she'd dug out of a collapsed building herself, she found herself reminiscing on times in her past life as she skipped across the trees. If there was one thing though she had to say she missed, it was the sheer freedom living in that city gave her. She could do anything, there weren't any laws to stop her. Granted, to other people, there also weren't laws limiting them, so getting shot dead in the street just like how she died, well, it wasn't a rare occurrence.

But what came a close second was how technology was strangely developed in some places, under-developed in others. They didn't have any kind of phones or digital devices. She'd heard a rumor that the richest inhabitants of the Nations had televisions, but from the way they were described, they sounded like screens from the 1940s, nothing like the kind of screen available in the time she lived at.

Coming out of the forest surrounding the training ground, Akari quickly walked up the side of a building, scanning the rooftops quickly and spotting only a few people using the 'Shinobi Highway', the easiest way to travel through Konoha and avoid the crowds. Idly, she could hear a household in the distance faintly singing the Happy Birthday song, grimacing as memories of the last few years worth of birthdays flashed by.

She was never very good at picking gifts, nor receiving them. Aside from Naruto, most of the people she'd call friends would usually find various amounts of Ryo disguised in random trinkets. The only one she ever put in the effort to think of a gift for was Naruto, not for lack of trying, she just sucked at figuring out what, say Komachi would like for her birthday. Or Kakashi.

Then again, Kakashi would just be happy if she got some Inuzuka-made dog food for his ninken. And Komachi usually seemed happy enough with weapon treating kits, so she was pretty easy. Anko liked having Monty to look after during her birthday, using the snake to ward off people she didn't like by wandering around with her wrapped around her neck.

Naruto, though, she put some serious effort into getting or even making presents for him. His most recent birthday presents were a book covering the introductory stages of Fuinjutsu, a crimson scarf the same colour as his mother's hair, birth mother that was, with golden Uzumaki spirals adorning it, and a little booklet she wrote out with Teuchi which was filled with redeemable little vouchers he could use to get ramen on his own from Ichiraku.

Speaking of which, Akari made a little detour towards the little Ichiraku stand, having memorized its location in order to find Kushina or Minato when she needed their help with something, or when she inevitably ended up losing the fiery redhead and needing to track her down, chances were she'd be there eating through a dozen bowls and trying to leave the bill with someone else.

Dropping off the rooftops, she strolled under the flaps of the ramen stand. "Oh, hey there Ayame." Akari grinned at the little 10-year-old sitting behind the counter on one of the sides, dangling her legs back and forth. The girl looked up at the sound of the flaps shifting, smiling brightly.

"Hi Akari-neechan! Uhh, Tou-san is in the back, but...I-I can take your order!" Smiling, Akari nodded, settling down on one of the stools.

"So, you're a big girl now, taking orders hmm? Who knows, maybe soon me and your good old Tou-san will have to be fending the boys off with brooms?" The little girl shook her head, sticking her tongue out and whining about how boys are icky. "Well, I'll take one Tonkotsu ramen with extra Chashu and Menma please, plus another to go." Reaching over, she rustled Ayame's hair. "Who knows, maybe soon you'll be back there with your tou-san making ramen with the best of them?"

Though she ducked her head to hide her blush, Akari could see how excited the girl was about growing up to be just like her father. Somehow, that brought a far warmer feeling to her heart than near anything else, knowing that by protecting the village, Ayame could grow up doing whatever she wanted. If they were in worse position, such as if the Third Great Shinobi War dragged on, Ayame might not have had that chance, she might have been forced into doing something else. With her reserves and comparatively weak frame, being a ninja wasn't for her, but wartime needs might have ignored that.

It was that reason why she never regretted her actions during the battle of Akaya plains, massacring hundreds of Iwa-nin using her Jutsu. If she didn't do that, who knows what situation Konoha would have found themselves in now. Maybe Minato's own actions as the Yellow Flash would have ended the war, but not likely as soon as it did with Akari on their other flank single-handedly crushing their army group centre with a single Jutsu.

But, snapping her out of her dreary thoughts was the master of ramen himself. "Teuchi, how are things?" The man shrugged, rolling the bowl to her and wiping his hands down.

"The same as ever, Akari. It would be nice if we could get ahold of more wheat, but the farms we are usually supplied from got delayed thanks to an encounter with a delegation from Kumo, so we're a little short on noodles. Still enough to feed all the hungry mouths that come our way, but until they get here, I have to buy from other suppliers." Frowning, Akari tried to recall what delegation he was talking about, but shrugged. If they were important, she probably would have been told by the Ho...kage.

Facepalming, Akari propped her chin up with her hand, elbow in the side as she stirred her bowl of ramen around with her chopsticks. "I'm an idiot. I remember what I forgot, the Hokage wanted to talk to me. Whoops." Teuchi stared at her incredulously for a moment, then threw his hands up and walked back into the back area of his stall muttering about crazy Uchiha.

Then again, she'd been in this exact seat sat beside Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, who himself was sat next to Sarutobi, who had been dragged there by Kushina since at the time he was happily retired. In her infinite logic, Kushina decided that meant he had plenty of free time to try some ramen. Of course, she also bribed Akari into helping by offering her a new design for an explosive tag that Minato had come up with, but nobody living knew that, nor needed to know that.

The point remained that she had a scary amount of leeway with the current and past Hokage. Minato favoured her, and Sarutobi put up with her lack of correct suffix use a lot of the time, as well as the fact that occasionally she came to him because she'd fucked something up royally, like the time she accidentally made a self-perpetuating explosion seal, then subsequently set it off. They had to call in a chakra-draining specialist for that little issue, but Hiruzen never seemed too mad about it.

Then again, with how strong he was, Akari wouldn't be surprised if his face was actually an impregnable mask hiding the seasoned veteran beneath.

* * *

"-o page 363 please, it should be titled 'Ballistic Theorem'."

Creeping into the room by walking upside-down through a window fully enshrouded in the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, Akari grinned to herself as she saw her brother stood behind his desk, a hand outstretched towards the chalk caking his board. Ahh, one of the many classes she ended up skipping, Ballistic Theorem. Rather than just take the students outside and letting them practice with Kunai and learn in a way better way, they had them all sat in a boring-ass classroom learning how gravity, wind, grip, blah blah blah, all of that somehow changed the path of a Kunai so that despite the opponent stepping to the side, it hit them still.

It was all super boring. What wasn't super boring was actually throwing Kunai. Of course, after years of doing that exact thing, the novelty of throwing a sharp object around wore off somewhat, but it was way better than learning that by pushing a finger out slightly, you could make the Kunai fly in an unpredictable pattern. Or by twisting your hand, it would do a magical backflip and end up ripping a hole in reality...

Okay, maybe not quite that much, but that just showed how boring it was. One of the students flicked through the entire book to fan themselves, letting Akari's Sharingan pick up every single page of the booklet. Every single one was just as boring as the last, if not more so. If it were any more boring, a boring black-hole would have opened up and devoured the book whole, saving these poor little naive brats from the hell that studying was going to be. Deciding to do her duty as a Tokubetsu Jonin of Konoha and save these poor mistreated children, she...

...folded her legs up to sit on the ceiling and grinned down at Sei, acting perfectly nonchalant. "Akari, what are you doing up there?" The students all looked up in confusion, though Sei wasn't fooled. Unshrouding herself, she tapped her chin, acting completely innocent, and ignoring the gasps of surprise from all the students.

"Absolutely noothing~" She chirped. "Though, when did you notice I came in?"

Sei sighed. "The instant you turned your Sharingan on." Akari hummed. That was a bit surprising. She expected him to 'see' the disturbance in Nature Chakra thanks to his Golan Seal and immediately know that someone entered the room. Evidently, if he only knew she was there when she used her Sharingan, something about the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu helped blend them in, even to those who could sense Chakra. "So, what are you doing in here Akari? Don't say nothing, you must have had a reason." Frowning at her brother, she shrugged.

Since she was still upside down, evidently this amused some of the assembled students, who laughed. "Well, I guess I kinda wanted to see what this crop of genin looked like. You are teaching the final year students this year, right?" Sighing again, Sei nodded. "Woah woah woah, so...these are final-year students?" Sei nodded, raising an eyebrow at Akari's voice. "And you're only now introducing them to Ballistic Theorem?"

Sei rubbed his closed eyes in feigned exhaustion. "Blame the civilians. But, enough. Akari, do you have an actual reason to be here interrupting this class?" She shook her head. But, before he could tell her to leave, she grinned widely.

"Well, maybe I could help you out! I'm still on forced leave thanks to an incident that I can't talk about, S-class secret n'all that, but I just set Naruto working on his calligraphy, Komachi is off being ANBU, and I don't have anyone to waste my last three days with!" The assembled students all chimed in that they also wanted to learn about how cool she was, probably because she was sat on the ceiling looking down at him.

"Fine." He finally acquiesced. "But you get to explain to the Hokage why you just invaded my class when you're meant to be meeting him."

* * *

**...This is hard to write now.**

**My problem is that I didn't have a target for Akari to be going towards. I now have an event planned, which is why she'd meant to be meeting the Hokage. But, because she's sort of an SI, she procrastinates it a bit, because she's allowed to, thanks to the fact that she's on mandatory leave, so she has an excuse. ****Does it make sense when you think about it? No. But I don't always do things that make great sense.**

**Hey, if you enjoyed, maybe you could consider hopping on over to my profile, where a little Pat reon link sits waiting for attention. Don't feel obligated, I really enjoy writing, it just doesn't keep the lights on. If you have even just a few pounds you could sling my way, I'd be really grateful!**

**Now, I'm doing a hard age-setting here, because I lost track. These are now the fixed ages for a few characters so you get the idea of what ages certain groups are. I know this is one, maybe two years from what it should be, but I gave up trying to keep track of it, so I'm just resetting it. Trying ot make this part of the entities fault would bend my brain around too much, so I didn't bother. Sawwy.**

**Naruto Uzumaki - 4**

**Iruka Umino - 14**

**Akari Uchiha - 16**

**Deidara - 16 (I fucked up, Deidara is canonically like 4 years older than Naruto, so he'd be 8/9 right now. But fuck it, I want him in here, so he's older than he should be.)**

**Kakashi Hatake - 18**

**Might Guy - 18**

**Kurenai Yuhi - 19**

**Hiruzen Sarutobi - 60**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 41385/53000**

**To Next Level: 11615**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 13000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2500/m - 41.6/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 55**

**Vitality - 40**

**Endurance - 30**

**Intelligence - 50**

**Agility - 50**

**Wisdom - 50**

**Luck - 30**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_


	20. Chapter 20

**Komachi isn't Akari's girlfriend or anything. I wanted to set up a recurring joke where whenever those two go out for Dango, someone will inevitably make that joke. I'm sorry if anyone thought I was actually setting them up together, but I just wanted Komachi to be a close friend of Akari's. That's why I mentioned briefly that she was off being an ANBU with her 'boyfriend', Towa in Chapter 19. Hopefully that clears things up a bit.**

**To be honest, I don't know if I want Akari to even have a pairing.**

_**Chapter 20**_

* * *

Akari planted a foot down carefully on the rooftop she landed on, wary to avoid dislodging any tiles.

After exfiltrating from the Academy when Sei got annoyed at her for messing with his Golan seal to screw up his senses and make him miss his throws, Akari decided it was past time she actually went to see the Hokage about whatever he wanted to tell her. From the summons she received, it wasn't something she had to immediately stop and deal with, to the point of cancelling plans or turning off ovens, but he still wanted to tell her something.

He probably wouldn't be happy at how long it took her to actually respond to those summons, but, in his own words, she was to take a week of mandatory leave, which meant she wasn't allowed to do any Shinobi duties unless in a state of emergency like a Bijuu getting loose in the village. "I know you wouldn't do that willingly buddy." She pre-empted Kurama's words. Since she wasn't really hiding her idle thoughts, Kurama could hear what she was thinking.

Of course, after assaulting him with mental images of activities, explicitly lewd things that would make Jiraiya himself blush in embarrassment, he hurriedly taught her how to shield her thoughts from him. It might have been a bit mean, and it certainly took a little effort to get him to stop pouting and moping around the seal ignoring her, but to protect her thoughts, there was no price too great.

How he didn't pick up on the Game earlier was definitely odd, perhaps Gamer's Mind protected certain incriminating thoughts from detection, idly defending itself against Kurama even as Akari wasn't aware of it. "Oh, really?" She muttered at the pop-up which appeared. "Is this shit going to keep happening?

_**+50EXP, +1 Wisdom for accurate deduction.**_

**And, in answer to your question, it was supposed to have been occurring repeatedly. Just another thing which U.O.273 - 2 has manipulated into non-existence. From initial searching, more than a hundred various stat-increases have been removed from existence.**

Humming in acknowledgement, Akari frowned. Those pop-ups were useful, but annoying. She was just casually thinking about how Kurama and how Gamer's Mind worked, and she got a wisdom point for that? That?! She was barely doing anything mentally challenging, and she was rewarded? It seemed a little silly really.

_**Feedback acknowledged, adjusting reward system.**_

**Well, as you seem so knowledgeable, why don't you try to come up with a better system?**

"...I can't just come up with a blanket system like that! I mean, you decided to reward me based on what? The fact I had a vaguely...intelligent thought. That's so stupid, I wasn't even being wise, just intelligent, using my mind to deduce that based on how Kurama didn't know about the Game despite everything pointing him towards it, there was something, possibly Gamer's Mind, which was blocking him from knowing about it. Hell, even right now he can't actually hear anything I'm saying to you." Sighing, Akari deftly avoided a loose tile, leaping across the gap between buildings with ease.

**Then by your own words, you would prefer something that gave you something more mentally challenging? You would derive more enjoyment from that?**

Akari shrugged, her action slightly destabilizing her path as she travelled across Konoha. "Well, personally, I would prefer to actually keep it how it is." The contradictory sentence threw the entity off somewhat. "I mean, I want to get stronger. I only won the battle against Orochimaru because of my inventory. He didn't expect me to suddenly pull a sword out of nowhere. In that fight, he outclassed me stat-wise. My tactics and abilities helped keep me alive, but if I encountered him a second time after using my tricks, he would kill me. If I want to survive against stronger enemies, I need more strength, so while I don't like it, I'd be happier if a deduction actually gave me more points for less work."

**How...honest of you.**

Akari stuck her tongue out at the air. "Well duh, why would I lie to you about that? But in terms of actual balance, you would want someone to actually make a strong deduction. For example, if I managed to deduce from small parts of evidence that Orochimaru was experimenting on orphans, I would get rewarded with a few points of intelligence and wisdom. If I looked at a crater in the ground and somehow deduced who created it, with how much force, and when it occurred, I would also gain a few points of strength, owing to the physical nature of the action."

**I shall take your words under...consideration. Now, as you well know by now, U.O.273 - 2 has manipulated far more of your game than we knew. Your achievements have not been logged, then it was recently found that your Chakra Natures, which should have been reducing the cost of Fire and Lightning Jutsu, have not only not been doing so, they have been negatively affecting your Chakra cost. Your UI still displays the correct numbers, but you were actually using more Chakra, meaning you could have accidentally entered Chakra Exhaustion despite the UI stating that you had Chakra to spare.**

**To top that off, as you just found, your stat-increase rewards are not being procked. Fortunately U.O.273 - 2 didn't disable the triggers, he just removed the visual aspect and the reward. As such, you still triggered the objectives, so those can be easily tracked.**

"Sorry, but...why the fuck did that entity even do all this shit?" Akari butted in with a frown. That U.O.273 - 2 seemed to have it absolutely out for her, but the Entity had never actually explained why the fuck it felt the need to absolutely destroy the system.

**...Scratch that, four problems.**

Before Akari could question it, she felt...something intruding in her mind. It wasn't nearly like Kurama's presence when he spoke to her inside of her own head, it felt...weird, but not wrong or anything, just...displaced. She stopped in place on a rooftop, sitting down then trying to stop her head from swaying about as whatever happened...happened.

**It would appear that, amongst other things, U.O. has also caused mental changes, leaving you not as mentally clear as you should be with Gamer's Mind aiding you. Try to recall the words I displayed to you when I began explaining the general basis of what had occurred without your knowledge.**

Akari threw her mind back to that day, surprised at her recollection of it. "You said that...oh. So he was unhappy with his position, took it out on me and...a few others?"

**Precisely. However, you were the one he focused on the most, the others were fixable within a single standard day. The problems which afflicted them were far more minor, like singular quest-markers missing, a few hundred missing points of experience. By contrast, yours couldn't be more comprehensive. I do not know why he chose you for such a broad manipulation, but now we shall never know. Now then, allow me to...**

**Retroactive stat correction added: +11STR, +14VIT, +9END, +23INT, +15AGI, +37WIS, +11LUK**

"Uhh, thanks...holy shit." Looking at her stat sheet, Akari gawped. Her health was a very respectable 11,030. But, her Chakra, thanks to the fact that evidently Wisdom and Intelligence checks were more common, had leapt from the already great amount of 13,000 all the way up to 32,620. As in, she could cast the Shadow Clone Jutsu 217 times in one single go before running out of Chakra.

Heck, she could maintain the Level 3 Susanoo for almost exactly 5 minutes, after removing the 2.5k cost for bringing it into existence. "Uhh, well, thanks I guess entity. So, how are you going to do those in the future?"

**Unknown. I suppose owing to the fact that you don't mind the current system, but have displayed disagreement with the display functionality of the reward, it can simply be modified to display the reward at an alternate time. Is this agreeable with you?**

Akari nodded, as that sounded perfectly reasonable to her. "Sure. Just...out of curiosity, where did those luck points come from?"

**One of them came when you stepped on a tree-root, fell over, thus you avoided being struck by a Senbon in the back. Because you were lucky enough to avoid that attack, the system gave you a single point of luck. ****The other ten...**

**...were from your encounter with Onoki the Fence-Sitter.**

* * *

Skidding to a stop outside the Hokage's Tower, Akari quickly brushed down her outfit, looking at the little model of herself in her inventory.

She honestly hadn't changed much of her outfit from what she wore 8 years ago, the only changes being that she now had metal arm protectors wrapped around her forearms, with seals having been inked on them to cover for her bringing items out of her inventory, as well as a light version of the Tokubetsu Jonin vest being worn over her fishnet mesh and tanktop. Her scarf was the same as ever, though slightly tattered with old damages which had occurred over the years and subsequently been patched over.

Her hair was part of the way down her back, long enough to look good without being too much of a vulnerability in combat. She wanted to eventually have her hair long enough to brush the pouch attached to the small of her back, but that would be an extremely grabbable liability when fighting. She was damn good, but against someone on Orochimaru's level, having her hair that long would make a fight far harder than necessary. She wasn't strong enough to be confident in having hair that long during combat.

Aside from that, all that had changed was that her face was now more mature, but that was hardly a surprise. Satisfied with her appearance, she entered the building, neatly sidestepping a hurrying group of genin who brushed by, eagerly heading off for their mission. Smirking to herself as she remembered her own first missions, Akari watched them leave for a moment, then turned back inwards, bypassing all the gathered Shinobi who were collecting missions from the Mission Office to start hopping up the stairs.

The tower itself contained various rooms and offices, making it even more important than before. Considering the Hokage and all his paperwork was also in the building, and the Shinobi Academy, it was almost certainly the best-defended location in the whole village, bar none. Of course, that still meant some Shinobi, who Akari wouldn't name for reasons, thought it'd be funny top skip going through the tower and instead enter through the Hokage's window.

It certainly didn't include her. Or Minato. Or Kushina when she was an active Kunoichi. Or more than a few dozen other Shinobi she could list by name.

Smiling to herself, Akari reached the floor which held the Hokage's office. It had no other offices or unnecessary clutter, only storage rooms for the ridiculous amount of paperwork the village generated and that the Hokage had to personally sign off on, alongside the main office itself. Waving at the secretary, Akari approached. "Can I help you?" She said over her glasses, looking up and spotting Akari. "Ahh, Uchiha-san, the Hokage was expecting you...three hours ago." Rubbing the back of her head, Akari decided that Kakashi had the right idea for excuses.

"I...got lost on the road to life?" The secretary narrowed her eyes, leading Akari to slump. "Whatever. Is he in a meeting or something, or can I just go in now?" The secretary plucked a piece of paper out of nowhere, peering at it with her hawk-like eyes before meeting Akari's wary gaze again.

"Currently Hokage-sama is doing paperwork, so you may enter." Nodding to her, she left the icy secretary with a slightly less enthusiastic smile, knocking once on the oaken doors which closed the Hokage's office, then pressing them open when she heard the Hokage call for her to enter.

The Hokage looked up from his papers to glance at her, then back down, waving a hand at one of the chairs in front of his desk. Deciding that sitting down was worth it, since as the Hokage his chairs were super-comfortable, Akari flopped down into a relaxing position, waiting as the Hokage scribbled a few things down. A few minutes passed, with Akari passing that time twiddling her thumbs and looking around the room in more detail.

A sudden thought came to her, leaving Akari looking at the Hokage keenly.

**Hiruzen Sarutobi - Level 97**

She had to suppress the urge to whistle, simultaneously regretting not observing Orochimaru, just to see how he matched up against the Hokage. Silently, she vowed that she would at least try to remember to observe more people, so she could get a better gauge for her strength. She was almost two-thirds of the way to approaching Hiruzen's level, but her observe didn't tell her stats, so she didn't know how well she matched up. For all she knew, he had plenty of Intelligence and Wisdom but lacked in Strength, Agility and Endurance. Or maybe he was just overall better thanks to his vastly longer life.

"I do recall sending ANBU Rat to deliver a message requesting your presence this morning. He came back reporting that he personally handed the summons to you before returning. Now I don't believe Rat to be lying to me, which begs the question as to why it took you three and a half hours to arrive when your apartment is only a ten-minute journey from my office?" Grinning, Akari shrugged.

"I got lost on the-" Hiruzen cut her off.

"I don't need another Kakashi, Akari. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I know I gave you a week off, but from what a few Shinobi have off-handedly mentioned, you seem perfectly capable, so I want to assign you an in-village mission." Perking up, Akari stopped relaxing, her body on alert. Say what you would about her when off-duty, as soon as something noteworthy came along, she was all-ears.

After all, the last in-village mission she had was to protect Kushina, and that was over four years ago at that point. Hiruzen took note of her focus and gave a near-imperceptible nod. "We've recently entered into talks of establishing a non-aggression pact with Kumo. Thankfully the treaty written when you and Minato accompanied me to meet with Onoki has held solid, leaving our north-west border fairly secure. Securing our north-eastern border against Kumo as well would leave us in a very strong position, leaving only Kirigakure to present a visible threat."

Raising an eyebrow, Akari waited patiently for the Hokage to continue. Seeing she had no question, the old man did exactly that. "Now, we have a delegation from Kumo, including their head shinobi. I don't think I need to tell you that we're wary of any deception on their part. That's why I want you to keep an eye on them, see if you can't figure out what they're planning. 'Look underneath the underneath.' as it were." Frowning, Akari spoke after a few moments of thinking.

"I get that you'd want someone to look into this, but, as I said about the Uchiha situation, I'm not a stealthy Shinobi. I may have control enough to hide myself from sensors, but my idea of a stealthy elimination is to just try and kill everyone. Since I never had a Jonin-sensei teach me properly that is." Hiruzen grimaced, making Akari regret bringing up the death of her old sensei.

"I do regret what happened that day, as well as that I never re-assigned you to a proper team. By the time I'd found a suitable one, Minato and I had already promoted you to Tokubetsu Jonin, and I presume now that you would...chafe under a Jonin-sensei?" Akari gave a wry smile and a nod. "Precisely. But...I don't want you to be particularly covert about this. There are other, far more applicable Shinobi who can undertake that role. Instead, I want you to be their visible 'escort', for lack of a better word. With luck, your presence will lull them into a false sense of security, playing on the idea that leaf shinobi are weak thanks to our mercy, leaving the more stealthily-inclined Shinobi a wider window of opportunity."

Grinning, Akari raised her hand in front of her face. "So I'm gonna be the bait? The slightly ditzy and 'weak' Shinobi who spends more time playing with her hair and nails than watching her target?" Hiruzen nodded. "Awesome, count me in." Pulling a scroll out of her pouch, Akari spun it on her palm. "Guess this'll be a good test of this scroll then." Hiruzen lifted his pipe, puffing it a few times.

"And what exac-" Akari funnelled a little chakra into the scroll, feeling the effect of the Fuinjutsu inscribed within. "-tly...oh my." Hiruzen had to act quickly to catch his pipe as it slipped from his lips. The scroll had disappeared entirely, but that wasn't what Hiruzen was so surprised about. In place of Akari was a slightly taller woman, with emerald eyes, blonde hair which was done up in a bun held together by a few Senbon, and wearing an outfit made up of a Chunin vest over a dense fish-net shirt, with a skirt flaring out under the vest.

The woman smirked, then spoke, her voice a far cry from Akari's. "Well, I haven't come up with a name for it. if I had to call it something, probably the Nikutai-Teki Sakkaku Fuinjutsu. **(Corporeal Illusion Sealing Technique) **I took the idea of the Shadow Clone, and applied it in my Fuinjutsu, creating this. Underneath, I'm completely normal, but this will trick the Sharingan and Byakugan. The Byakugan will know that something is wrong, but it can't actually tell what exactly, just that there isn't something quite right." Palming his chin, Hiruzen looked Akari over with a keen eye.

"It will d-" He stopped, furrowing his brow, then letting his eyes widen in earnest surprise. "Your Chakra signature!" Grinning, Akari flourished her arms.

"That's not all of course! Thanks to a little help from Bao, he's my Panda summon by the way, I managed to filter the Chakra for this Fuinjutsu through a storage script of Natural Chakra, distorting the signature. Because that is what's being detected when this scroll is used, it means my actual signature is completely unrecognizable. Even if somehow one of those ninjas had detected my chakra before, they won't be able to recognize me. The greatest part is that if I use a different storage script of Natural chakra, my chakra will be distorted again. if I use the same, it'll be identical. As such, I can make alternate identities."

Hiruzen nodded along, his expression unchanging after he'd schooled it of all surprise and back into an implacable facade, uncaring that Akari had now seen through that facade into his surprised expression. "Well, I was going to suggest seals, but to learn that you had one like this...Kushina truly taught you well." Rubbing her arm, Akari smiled wistfully and nodded.

"To be honest, I think she really cared, y'know? Even if she may have done things I don't agree with-" Hiruzen frowned at this, surprised that Kushina had done anything Akari wouldn't be happy with. Of course, Akari wouldn't tell him that she was so friendly with Kurama that he'd told her of how Kushina had treated him. "-I still think of her as family. Not as a mother, but more an older sister or something. I dunno, probably has something to do with how I'm raising her kid." Hiruzen hummed in agreement, puffing on his pipe.

"Well, shall we get started? The Kumo shinobi are currently living on one of the buildings set aside for foreign dignitaries, so finding them won't be hard. And before you leave, here." Hiruzen handed her a rolled-up scroll, presumably it was the scroll detailing her mission. Akari grinned as she took and unrolled it, but for an entirely different reason than Hiruzen would expect.

**Quest received.**

**Eyes of the Beholder.**

**Objectives:**

**Escort the Kumo Shinobi within Konoha.**

**?**

**Reward: 150,000 experience.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**?**

Her quests were back.

* * *

**Okay, one thing.**

**I'm no longer listing techniques. Reading back, I'm an idiot. In chapter 11, Akari uses the Hiding Like A Mole technique, but she never learnt it. Rather than un-do that, I'm just going to list the more powerful Jutsu. Regulars like the Flame Bullet, Wind Blade, Hiding Like A Mole, etc will be ignored.**

**And, after reading it, I've decided that proficiencies have taken a back-seat. I do update them every 4 chapters, but to be honest, they really aren't used. So, you can kind of see how proficient Akari is, but they're more a guideline, they don't have a real effect during fights.**

**Reviews are like candy to me, I want an infinite amount, but I can only get a few. Plzgivesmesomecandy!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 41,435/53,000**

**To Next Level: 11,565**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 66**

**Vitality - 54**

**Endurance - 39**

**Intelligence - 73**

**Agility - 65**

**Wisdom - 88**

**Luck - 41**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_

* * *

**Techniques**

**Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan - The eyes of a close relative. When in use, will no longer degrade visual acuity. Mangekyo Techniques will now also no longer damage eye-sight. Same abilities as regular Mangekyo Sharingan. Usage: 25CP/s.**

**Left Eye: Megami No Te (The Hand of Goddess) - This technique grants the user the ability to completely manipulate the ground around them within a fifty-meter radius. This requires great concentration but can be devastating if used correctly. Usage - 500CP/Cast, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Right Eye: Megami no Mon (Goddess's Gate) - This technique will summon forth a corporeal spectre from the Pure Lands to fight or act on your behalf. To use, the name of the Spectre must be invoked, and the face of the summoned one must be in Mind's Eye. Spectre will have 2x Player's Chakra amount, and will drain Chakra at 1% per minute. Can use all original techniques of Spectre, but will use Chakra to fuel them, leading to a faster disappearance. Will follow all orders of Summoner, and cannot be affected by Genjutsu or compulsion techniques. Can be granted free will to act autonomously, but will mean Spectre can attempt to use loopholes in orders to hinder summoner if they so wish. Usage - 25% of total Chakra pool, will immobilize Summoner for 5 second duration whilst Spectre is called forth.**

**Susanoo: As the user has both Mangekyo, the Susanoo has been unlocked, a large Chakra construct capable of being formed around the user for protection and offence. This construct can be summoned in multiple forms, each one being larger, more protective and with more abilities.**

**Level 1 - A rib-cage surrounds the user, protecting them from harm but lacking offence. The form will slowly grow until it is formed into a large skeletal structure, where musculature and skin will grow, finally forming into a giant humanoid: 500CP/Cast, 25CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 2 - Armour forms around the Susanoo for added protection, though it is not a complete protection: 1250CP/Cast from nothing, 500CP/Cast from Level 1, 50CP/s to maintain.**

**Level 3 - The Susanoo will now form the final pieces of armour, becoming fully-enshrouded. The Susanoo will gain wings for flight, with Ornate robes over heavy armour granting the construct hefty defences. The Complete-body Susanoo is capable of summoning weaponry to assist it during battle: 2500CP/Cast from nothing, 1500CP/Cast from level 1, 1000CP/Cast from level 2, 100CP/s to maintain.**

**Shadow Clone Jutsu - Take the regular Bunshin. Mix on some more chakra. Then more. Then, just for good measure, a large sprinkle of more chakra. Voilá! You have a Shadow Clone. This Bunshin is corporeal, it can hit a foe, it can carry things, it can even (With an extra-large helping of Chakra) take a hit without dispersing. But, the best part? It shares its memories when it disperses. Enjoy! Usage - 150CP/cast, lasts 1 hour, every 10CP extra grants extra hour.**

**Kiri-Woka no Jutsu - Enshrouded in your own chakra, this Jutsu will allow you to evade the sight of near-all enemy Shinobi, as well as many of your allies. Imperceptible to the naked eye, but with the tiny risk of turning into stone, this ability can only be detected by high-level sensors and Dojutsu users. Usage - 5CP/s.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Please, I do honestly like and respond to constructive criticism. One of my favourite reviews for any of my stories was one written by Azaira back in Chapter 9...the original chapter 9 that is, where Orochimaru got Kabuto to trick and capture Akari, then tortured her. Thanks to that criticism, the chapter was changed massively to what it is now, a FAR better version. If Aza never left that review, this story would be vastly different, and in my own humble opinion, inferior.**

**So if there's something you don't like, or think doesn't fit, tell me!**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy boos!**

_**Chapter 21**_

* * *

'Kara' popped her arms out above herself, unintentionally giving a show to those on the streets below her as she stretched.

One of the Kumo-nin snorted then nudged his partner, pointing up to the blonde woman when he looked at him questioningly. "Well, would you look at that, dinner and a show." His partner spoke mockingly, taking another bite of his food. Of course, using the layer of simple ogling, the man who was nudged was actually analyzing the woman, wary of any tricks. There was a slight bulge under her left sleeve in the vague shape of a Kunai, a few Senbon visibly wrapped around her other arm, and a storage pouch on her hip.

After all, you didn't get to become the Head Ninja of Kumo by luck. But, even to his trained eyes, or rather, 'eye', the Chunin appeared to simply be a rather stupid and weak Kunoichi sent to keep an eye on the Kumo delegation. Slipping an audio-distorting seal onto the underside of the table between he and his partner, he conversed with them. "It would appear our intelligence was correct, Konoha's stronger Shinobi are out of the village, leaving only nin like...that to guard."

Looking back up at the woman, the experienced Shinobi couldn't help but grimace. She was literally sitting down and eating a stick of Dango she'd procured from somewhere, spending more of her time looking at the rest of the village than on her assigned task. It rankled him so much that for a moment he was tempted to Shunshin up to her and slap some sense into her, but that would make his mission unnecessarily harder. He instead made a mental note that if he got the chance during his exfiltration, he would kill her as well, if only to rid the world of a completely idiotic nin.

She might be from an enemy village, but there was a line that the Kumo Head Ninja wouldn't allow anyone to cross in his presence. That woman had tap-danced straight over that line. As such, killing her would ease his mind of the stupidity he was being forced to witness as she dangled her legs off the roof of the building, blatantly stared at the assembled Shinobi for a few moments then her gaze drifted off again, a light appearing in her eyes as she scampered to a standing position and hopped a few buildings down to look across the streets.

He was briefly curious as to what would make her forget her mission like that, but eventually decided to ignore it. For all he knew, she was distracted from her mission by a goat wandering around town, or someone wearing a funny hat. She definitely didn't seem anything like some of the Shinobi Konoha had brought out over the years like Kakashi of the Sharingan, Minato of the Yellow Flash, or the current reigning Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, better known as The Professor.

Compared to those legends, that woman was...a disaster.

* * *

"Damn, thought I saw Naruto with a girl."

Slumping back down on the roof, Akari cracked a finger, her eyes drifting around lazily. This mission was incredibly boring, nothing like when she was assigned to guard Kushina. For one, the pair of Kumo shinobi she was assigned to watch were so boring, they weren't doing anything noteworthy. Two, she wasn't allowed to talk to them, or anyone really, a far cry from the antic-filled conversations she could have with Kushina, from anything, Fuinjutsu to how memory foam worked.

The one she was told was the Head Ninja thought he was being sneaky with that seal he used. He wasn't, she could feel when it went active, having spent basically half her life around seals. She couldn't tell what it did without coming into physical contact with the seal, or of course if it was a barrier, by encountering said barrier. But that didn't mean she couldn't deduce the purpose by observing the changes in the two Shinobi.

As soon as she tried to listen to what they were saying, the purpose became clear, leaving her holding back a giggle at how stupid it was. Evidently her ruse had worked, they thought she wouldn't be able to even hear at that distance, meaning that she wouldn't be able to tell that they weren't actually saying anything but gibberish. The seal presumably distorted any soundwaves which left the immediate area, presumably a very small radius around him and his compatriot, leaving it unrecognizable. Of course, that meant she couldn't hear what they were talking about, but there were ways to get around that.

Drifting slowly to the other side of the roof, where visibility of her was very low for the two Shinobi, she popped a shadow clone to life on the next street, which she immediately used a Henge on, turning her into a non-descript villager. The shadow clone gave a sloppy salute, perfect form for a clone of her, then began ambling down the street.

Her task done, Akari stretched her arms up, turning around and looking straight at the ninja for a few seconds before looking away down the road, wandering across the rooftop carelessly. She might have been playing it up a bit, but from the absolutely chilling look the Shinobi at the stall gave her when he met her eye, it was working a treat. The idea was to be a ditzy Chunin, someone they could see being a bit...well, stupid. It rankled her to be so obvious, out in the open and vulnerable, but if things went badly and for some unfathomable reason they decided to attack her, she always had her new depths of Chakra to reach into. **"I'm here too you know brat."**

Smiling to herself, she spoke in her mind. "I know Kurama, I just don't want either of us to get hurt because I leapt into trying to borrow too much of your strength." That was pretty fair though, thanks to Kurama's strength, she could definitely punch above her weight-class, at least temporarily. Even if the Head Shinobi was stronger than his level suggested, she was confident that she could beat him if Kurama helped her out. Speaking of which...

**Kumo Head Shinobi (Name Unknown) - Level 57**

He was Level 57. Four levels above her. Strangely though, her old Sensei, Iseya Yuji, was level 55 when he died. So this Head Shinobi was only two levels above him, and Akari was only 1 level beneath the level of Yuji. It put the balance of power askew in her mind, since her Sensei had died remarkably easily, so perhaps-

**That was due to U.O.273 - 2 again, he was responsible for your Sensei not avoiding that Senbon, dying from the critical hit.**

Oh, well, that cleared that up, but added another question. "Hang on though, didn't he only start messing with this world 3 years after I arrived?"

**That is...partially correct. He began in earnest manipulating your Game approximately three standard years after you arrived. However, a standard year is shorter than a year on your current world. As such, whilst for you it was two and a half years after arrival that Iseya Yuji and your team died, in standard years it was over three. That reminds me...**

**Retro-active EXP Reward correction - +6000EXP.**

Nodding, Akari flicked her nails out, looking over them with a hum, then buffing them on her vest. A disgusted noise from one of the Shinobi down below her made clear that he had removed the audio-distorting seal. Of course, she had been speaking within her mind, no need to risk any kind of stupidity over someone hearing what she was saying and getting curious or suspicious. Sticking a hand into her pouch, she pulled another stick of fresh Dango out of her inventory, sliding a ball off the skewer and chewing on it happily.

Hey, if she had to watch a pair of idiots, she could have sweets to pass the time.

* * *

The two Shinobi finished their meal, throwing some ryo down before departing.

With a grumpy noise, Kara got up from her position, walking down the centre of the building rooftops in plain view, stick of Dango still in her hand. The Kumo Head Shinobi couldn't be more disgusted and appalled at her utter lack of...well, many things. Care, stealth, tact, she was just the antithesis of what a Shinobi should be. Granted, he liked being direct, a good fight was always nice, but, as his current mission proved, he was more than capable of subterfuge.

That woman following them, on the other hand, wouldn't know subterfuge if it hit her in the face like a Katon Jutsu. There were a few others, who were also following them in a more stealthy manner, but even they were easy for him to detect. They made their way through the village, coming to the building they were staying within, one Konoha had set aside for anyone like themselves who came for official business. As he walked in, he looked up to the building the woman was stood on frowning with a glare, pointing her out with a hand before disappearing inside.

The idiot even waved at him.

* * *

"Well, I think this persona is pretty convincing."

The Hokage puffed on his pipe to hide his chuckling and his smirk. "Quite. Though you may want to keep 'Kara' away from any friendly nin. By the time those Kumo-nin entered their lodgings, some of them were tempted to throw Kunai at you themselves." Akari dipped her head, rubbing on the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Right. I may have overdone the whole 'inept Chunin' thing. Then again, even if they loathe Kara, there isn't actually someone for them to hunt down. Even if someone got it in their head to try and hunt her down directly for being a disgrace to Shinobi everywhere, the only place it'll lead is to me, and there's nobody alive who would put me as being that...that idiot." Peering at her over his pipe, Hiruzen raised an eyebrow pointedly. "Hey, I'm not an idiot."

Hiruzen merely puffed on his pipe for a few moments, leaving Akari to stew. "Your own words." But, before she could retort, he continued on. "Regardless, I take it you have ingrained your new persona into the Kumo-nin's minds as being, in your own words, an inept Chunin?" Akari bit back her retort for his earlier words and nodded. "Good. I know that subterfuge isn't your usual mission-style, but we can both agree that this is not a typical mission."

Snorting, Akari shifted in place on the comfy chair. "Hey, you said it yourself, having someone like me take their attention whilst other, more stealth-oriented Jonin do the hard work would work out best for us." Hiruzen nodded in agreement, waiting a few moments before prompting Akari to detail anything prudent she noticed. Aside from the seal that he whacked down to cover his discussions, the two Shinobi didn't do or say anything reporting, which was understandable. The Kumo delegation hadn't been in Konoha for very long, so expecting them to be suspicious immediately wasn't a reasonable expectation.

He dismissed her quickly, which left her leaving his office giggling as he quietly cursed out his, quote, "Sage-damned stealthy secretary." for dropping paper-work off whilst they were distracted. She gave a cheeky wave to the secretary as she passed her by, slipping easily through the small number of people who were ascending the tower for one reason or another.

Reaching the ground floor, she briefly toyed with taking a short C-rank to pass the time, getting bumped into from behind in the moment of distraction. "Oh, excuse me." The person said, shuffling past and upstairs. Throwing a casual 'Don't worry about it.' over her shoulder as they disappeared, Akari hummed. A C-rank would be fun, a nice way to relax, kill a few bandits maybe. Yeah, that sounded like a good evening.

Then her more logical side kicked in, reminding her that she was supposed to be keeping an eye on Shinobi from another village. Disappearing off out of the walls of Konoha to go enjoy a mission wasn't doing that, not by a long shot. If those nin got up to anything whilst she was out having fun, it'd be on her head. As always, her logical side easily won the fight, leaving her slumping slightly, plodding out of the building in a huff.

On the way out, she pulled out a scroll from her pouch, unfurling it in front of herself then beginning to read. More than once she had to side-step a pole or other obstruction, her Sharingan being toggled on then off every few seconds, saving her from having to look up away from what she was reading. Granted, she could have just read it using her Sharingan and assimilated all the information at extreme speed, but she wanted to actually read something for once.

Even if it was just the boring mission report of an idiot genin trying to pickpocket her.

* * *

"I still don't like this."

Digging another line in the dirt, Akari shrugged. "I know. But you saw how out-matched I was against Orochimaru." Minato, or at least the spectre of Minato, rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Look, Minato, I know you intended for this to be Naruto's birth-right, but that means he has to actually be alive to receive it. If I get killed and Hiruzen has to re-seal the Kyuubi, there's literally a single person in Konoha who can hold it." The blonde Kage blanched, evidently he hadn't thought of that. "But hey, look on the bright side, he's taking to Fuinjutsu like an Uzumaki should, so when the time comes for him to learn it, he'll probably do just fine."

Minato gave a hesitant nod. "I know that Akari, but...it's like if you gave up to someone else the ability to summon spectres, y'know?" The blonde scratched his head. "It's...it feels wrong giving it to anyone other than Naruto, even to you." Giving a small smile, Akari nodded, patting his hand. "I...I'll let you learn it, but one condition." Akari raised an eyebrow in question. "You let Naruto meet Kushina when he becomes a Genin. I can wait until he's a Chunin, but...he should at least know who his mother was."

Grimacing, Akari considered it. On one hand, it would tell him that she could summon spectres. he might get curious about who his father was, since if Akari knew his mother, chances were she'd know his father. She was very careful to avoid talking about Naruto's father, instead either distracting him with his mother, or other topics entirely. He was bright, one day he would pick up on the fact that Akari knew his mother, and then he'd start asking questions. If, when he became a Genin, Akari revealed that she could bring forth his mother to speak with him, he might demand to see his father, or at least know who the man was.

But on the other hand, it was Kushina's son. He would probably be too happy to actually meet his mother than to question her about his father or demand he at least be allowed to meet him. He'd probably be placated, even motivated, if Akari told him that to meet his father, he'd have to become a Chunin. "Alright...when Naruto makes it to genin, I'll call Kushina to meet him. But I deserve the right to say I told you so if this goes horribly wrong." Minato smiled, a beamingly bright thing that made Akari wince.

"Great! Now, for the Hiraishin, first you have to..."

* * *

**A bit short, I know.**

**But, a pretty good pay-off there huh? Akari is starting to learn the Hiraishin! She probably won't be very good at it, because I'm not very comfortable writing it, but it should be fun, and the Game will find a way to incorporate it into yet another broken system that Akari should have received.**

**Fun times! And that retroactive stat correction was because Akari should have received 50EXP per point from the skill-points dump last chapter. She got 120 points from that, so she gets 120 times 50 experience points, 6000EXP total.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 46,445/53,000**

**To Next Level: 6,555**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 66**

**Vitality - 54**

**Endurance - 39**

**Intelligence - 73**

**Agility - 65**

**Wisdom - 88**

**Luck - 41**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_


	22. Chapter 22

**Don't forget, in this story, Anko never saw the darker side of Orochimaru, nobody really did, not the depths he'd actually go to. Anko never got a cursed seal, she still sees him as her sensei, a bit rough around the edges and weird, but still, the one who trained her and took her in. That's also why she's weaker than you'd expect canonically.**

**Please just keep that in mind.**

_**Chapter 22**_

* * *

"...I'll say it again, the Sharingan is cheating."

Folding his arms, Minato turned away from Akari, moping to himself. Akari was sat cross-legged on the floor with a grin on her face. Minato had obviously hoped to torture er by making absolutely sure her seals were perfect. Even a hair out of line and he would make her do it again. After all, that was how Kushina taught her, so it stood to reason that Minato would adopt her teaching style. But Akari hadn't been idle. Her Fuinjutsu proficiency was incredibly high, meaning seal-writing was something she could do with her eyes closed and a hand tied behind her back whilst playing the harpsichord with one foot.

But what really made seals easy for her was that with one glance, she could perfectly recall exactly how Minato inscribed his Hiraishin seal. Thanks to the fact she could even feel how much Chakra he was putting into his ink at key points, she didn't have to trial-and-error for how much Chakra to insert into the seal. Her very first proto-Hiraishin tag worked a treat, a far cry from when she didn't use her Sharingan to help her learn, spending weeks and months cracking her fingers trying to keep up with Kushina.

The actual transportation via Hiraishin though? Nauseating, to say the least. It felt like being grabbed from behind, pulled suddenly backwards and up, then spun head over heels a dozen times before being spat out the other side, dazed and nearly throwing up. Akari had never had the joy of being transported by Hiraishin before, so she got hit with the full force of the transportation. That at least cheered Minato up somewhat. "You'll get used to it, I know I did." That was all Minato said to placate her when she looked ready to make sure Naruto never got a sibling.

Well, doubly-sure.

* * *

"Oh, uh, hi?"

Leaning back on her chair, Akari blinked in surprise as Anko stepped into the room, having heard her approaching, but not knowing who would come visit her at that time. "Hey there Akari. You busy?" Akari shrugged.

"Well, not really, I'm just messing around with a new trick of mine. Why, what's up?" Anko warily eyes the vials and tubes currently on Akari's desk. "Don't worry, I'm not turning into Orochimaru or anything, I just...had a pretty scary idea for a new way to fight." Anko raised an eyebrow in question. "Naw, don't worry about it. Now, what can I do ya for?"

Anko looked uncomfortable for a few moments, rubbing her arm. "I just...you..." She stopped a moment, sighing. "You killed him?" Akari nodded once, confusion on her face. "And...and you didn't have a choice about it?" Akari shook her head.

"He wanted to kill me and experiment on my body. I couldn't just leave, he was too skilled for that to be an option. In the time it'd have taken for me to escape, he'd have killed me three times over." It rankled her slightly to so freely admit that she was weaker than her opponent, but that was the truth, plain and simple. Orochimaru was a Sannin, and she was just Akari. Granted, the Game made her stronger than any 16-year-old had a right to be, but the gap between her and the sannin was far too great.

"...He was the only one to think I could ever actually become something in this world. Even at the top of my class nobody thought I'd ever actually amount to anything, not with no clan backing me, not after my team was failed by a useless Jonin. And then Orochimaru came along. He trained me, taught me how to use snakes as a weapon, even letting me sign the same contract as he wielded. And...to think he was a traitor this whole time..."

Akari stood up, wary to avoid knocking anything over on her desk, then approached Anko, a thin frown on her lips. "Look, Anko, I honestly wish he wasn't as well. He was strong, and even if I may have made a nasty first impression all those years ago during the war, he wasn't...that bad honestly. But...he wanted to torture me for everything I knew on Jutsu, steal my eyes to...'practice with', then steal the Sharingan of another Uchiha while I would be back where we were, dead and unable to do anything to stop him. He wouldn't have just turned around and stopped...sorry."

Being as strong as she was, Anko didn't shed a tear or break down in anger about how Akari should have tried harder. Instead, she nodded, patted Akari on the shoulder, then gut-punched her. "That's for killing him." Then wrapped her in a brief hug. "And that's for making it as quick and painless for me as you could. I know you wouldn't have fought him unless you had to." Akari grinned despite the painful punch Anko just whacked her with, returning the hug before it was broken.

"Well, what would I do if Monty's sitter decided to start hating me?" Anko chuckled, before one of the vials on Akari's desk started bubbling. "Oh, whoops." Akari reached over and knocked the vial off the heat, switching off the burner. Anko made no secret of her curiosity, leaning over her shoulder to peer at the clear liquid. "I wouldn't touch this stuff if I were you, this...isn't pleasant, and that's coming from someone who can literally grow tumors on people." Anko blanched, prompting Akari to explain with a nudge.

Akari set the vial down, carefully avoiding letting any of the fluid splash out of the glass container. "Well, this on its own is inert. But,-" She reached over and grabbed a second vial, placing them next to each other. "-if I mix these two together and get the resulting mixture into your body in any way, the results are hopefully, not pretty. If it worked that is, I haven't gotten a chance to test this yet. And no, do not offer anything you value, including a snake, as a guinea pig." Tapping her chin, Akari snapped her fingers. "Do T&I have any prisoners awaiting execution?"

"We're...got a few."

* * *

"Hmm, let's go with...that one!"

Pointing one prisoner out of a small group, all due to be executed for various reasons, Akari rubbed her hands together. She hadn't really delved into poisons or venoms at all beforehand, but after fighting Orochimaru, she decided that maybe trying her own hand at poisons would be effective. As such a new proficiency popped up. What surprised her was how simple poison-making actually was.

Her very first proto-poison worked just fine, her Game telling her that it would do 50 damage a second for sixty seconds, plus a 1% chance to inflict a random status effect. Granted, for her current level, 50hp a second was a drop in the bucket, but the fact that the poison was apparently fully functional surprised her.

She tossed that first poison into her inventory then got to work making other poisons in her spare time. Since she'd only had a few days to practice, the poison she was now holding wasn't as good as she expected she could make, but it would definitely do. The UI when she selected it stated proudly that the poison would do 250 damage a second for one minutes, with a 5% chance to enervate her enemy, 1% chance to paralyze, and a 25% chance of a random status effect.

The poison was strong enough to even kill her in a single hit if she didn't use the Poison Extraction Jutsu on herself to remove it. Anko, just because she was curious, turned out to be a level 37, a pretty high level for a Chunin, low for a Jonin though. Then again, she couldn't really speak, she was made Tokubetsu Jonin at level 30, the average levels were a tad higher than that. Humming to herself, Akari took out a small vial of clear liquid, shaking it once before uncapping it and pouring it across a single Senbon. As the vial fully emptied, Akari got a notification from the game, informing her of an equipment change.

**Poisoned Senbon - 250HP/s, 1 minute duration, 5% enervation chance, 1% paralysis chance, 25% random effect chance.**

Well, that'd certainly help with keeping track. Placing the now-empty vial back in her inventory, Akari observed the Senbon. Strangely enough, even when she rolled it around and shook it lightly, very little fluid dropped from the weapon. The poison itself was certainly in a liquid state when in the vial, but once poured, it seemed a lot more viscous, sticking to the blade adamantly.

While she did this, the other prisoners were shuffled out of the room, Inoichi Yamanaka himself showing up though was definitely not expected. "Akari-san, good to see you. So, I hear you want one of my prisoners?" Akari rolled her eyes at the current head of T&I. Rumor had it that he wanted to actually leave the job to Ibiki soon and retire to look after his daughter, a sentiment Akari could fully understand.

"Oh please, all these prisoners have already been interrogated and found guilty of one thing or another, they're going to die anyway. Better I make sure this stuff works, otherwise I might apply it one day to someone, expecting them to die, only for them to kill me or a comrade." When Inoichi raised an eyebrow, she crossed her arms. "I'm not turning into Orochimaru mark 2, don't worry. I just want a backup plan in case I'm ever in a tight spot, poisons are a pretty good way to go about it. And if I can refine one that doesn't kill, merely disables, capture orders will go way easier for me."

Inoichi shook his head. "Just keep an eye on yourself. I know these men are due to die, but don't think that means you should take their lives easily. If you started seeing them less as human beings, and more as test subjects..." Akari grimaced.

"I'll start seeing others as test subjects as well if I'm not careful. Don't worry, I don't plan to. Now, can I try this out yet, or am I getting the third degree for more stuff?" Inoichi raised an eyebrow but stepped aside. Sighing, Akari rolled the Senbon in her fingers a few times. With almost casual ease, she flicked her fingers, sending the tiny piece of metal flying towards the bound prisoner, piercing through her leg easily.

Immediately the captured woman began thrashing about, trying to free herself from her bonds and presumably tear out the Senbon before killing everyone she could. Thanks to the fact that T&I were used to this sort of thing, her restraints were far too strong for that, leaving her bound and allowing Akari to take notes on how her poison worked. It definitely inflicted a lot of pain, a single Senbon to the leg wouldn't facilitate that kind of response.

She didn't notice any kind of alternate effect, nor did her Game tell her that any sort of effect had been applied, so presumably she hadn't gotten lucky with an effect this time around. Observing the target, Akari watched her health fall rapidly, going empty after only approximately thirty seconds. Of course, the more health someone had, the longer it would take, plus anyone with over 15,000 health and uninjured could tank the poison entirely. "Impressive." Inoichi spoke, his tone, whilst not entirely approving, was still congratulatory.

"Thanks." Was all she muttered, already turning over other ways to apply and improve her poisons.

* * *

**I originally had this big thing about how Akari made a super-infectious virus and...turned it into an Omake.  
**

**It doesn't fit the story, but I left it here so you can see what I'd written. I'm sorry this is a bit shorter than usual, honestly a bit of a filler feeling in my opinion. I tried to extend it, which is why it's also slightly late, but didn't have the time, I slept in, sorry boos!**

**Next chapter should ramp straight back up with the action. Akari won't be following those Kumo-nin for long, don't worry.**

**And please, reviews are delicious, I love receiving them! Please though, if you leave a review, check your inbox up to a day or two after making it, chances are I messaged you with my response! I love hearing back from people!**

**Please, enjoy this Omake!**

* * *

_**Omake: The Rage Virus**_

Holding herself from giggling and rubbing her hands together in excitement, Akari delicately took the two vials out of their cases under the wary eye of Inoichi, Anko, Ibiki, and an assorted group of T&I agents who came to see what the Crimson Medic had cooked up, and why she needed a prisoner for it.

Pouring the two fluids together inside of a third, much larger flask of glass, Akari took it in one hand, corking the top before mixing it together slowly. "So, uhh, what do you actually expect to happen here Akari?" Anko asked nervously. Akari had been strangely tight-lipped about what her concoction was going to do. With a sigh, she turned her head, both hands still securely mixing the flask. She looked pretty ridiculous with a full face-mask, rubber gloves, apron and goggles on.

But for good reason. "Well, I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." Was all she said, going back to mixing. Some of the T&I agents muttered between themselves, some murmuring that maybe it was some kind of truth serum, whilst others decided that it had to be a new poison of some kind. Nobody knew for sure, the only person who had any idea what the fluid was meant to do was Akari herself.

"H-Hokage-sama?!" The old man appeared in the room, surprising many of the agents. He nodded at the one who spoke, then turned his stern gaze on Akari.

"Akari, while I know I told you to take a break for a few hours, when I heard that you had gone to T&I searching for a prisoner who was due to be executed, I knew you hadn't taken the chance to rest. Would you mind telling me what you are planning?" Akari frowned. On one hand, she wanted to keep it a secret, but on the other, it was the Hokage.

Deciding to just ask for the sake of suspense, she put the large flask down, the fluid inside having stayed a clear colour, a thin film of bubbles on the surface. "Well, I don't know if this is going to work, so I wanted to test it on someone, but I can't go out on missions right now, so someone being executed was the next best thing. But I kinda want to keep it a secret, at least until I administer it?" The Hokage puffed on his pipe a moment.

"Will it be dangerous to anyone other than the prisoner?" Akari frowned, tipping her head to the side.

"I mean, maybe? I'm pretty sure I can handle any issues that crop up, but there's a reason I picked the largest observation room for this, so people can stay back." The old Kage frowned in disapproval, but Akari's earnest face won out, leaving him waving her on to do whatever she was planning, taking up residence a short distance away. With his approval, Akari withdrew a hypodermic needle from her apron, taking a few millimetres of the fluid before re-sealing the vial. Just for safekeeping, she put it in her inventory, under the guise of sealing it.

She then spawned a trio of Shadow Clones, handing one the needle whilst the other two withdrew Senbon from their leg-holsters. The clones warily approached the prisoner, whilst Akari stood back with her arms folded. "This is such a dumb idea. "She quietly muttered to herself, watching as the needle was sunk into the man's arm. As soon as the fluid was infected, the clones backed away, the needled discarded into Akari's inventory by the clone before it too drew Senbon.

Within moments the effect of the fluid was clear. The man began thrashing about, his sclera turning crimson as blood-veins in his eyes burst, his mouth frothing with saliva as he frantically ripped and pulled at his restraints, rolling about and trying to escape his confinement. Despite the strong restraints, his left arm popped free, windmilling around in a frenzy. That arm quickly ripped at the restraints across his body, trying to free himself.

Her clones acted quickly, each unleashing several Senbon which punctured the man at critical points, paralyzing his arms. Or at least jamming his muscles from moving. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Akari took one of her own Senbon out, rolling it between her fingers as she approached the paralyzed man. "Well, I guess it was a success." She muttered, flinging the piece of metal at his head.

As she did so, his lips opened, spewing out blood and bile towards her. Using a seamless Shunshin, she deftly avoided the fluid, grimacing as it splattered the floor and wall beside her. As some of the ninja made to get closer, she yelled, a pure booming noise of warning. "DON'T GET ANY FUCKING CLOSER!" All of the ninja, including the Hokage himself, stiffened at her voice. "This...is why I told you I'd have to report this to the Hokage, Anko. One drop of bodily fluid will infect you. The Incubation period is measured in single-digit seconds, the symptoms include burst blood-veins in the sclera, massively increased aggression, over-charge of the adrenal glands, loss of higher-brain function, before eventually, death from exhaustion/dehydration."

The room looked pretty horrified, and Akari couldn't blame them, the idea horrified her as well. She had her music player working away one day, going through songs, when the music for an old movie she'd watched came on. As she listened, she considered maybe, just because she could, trying to recreate what the movie had done. It wasn't her smartest move, making something like that, but she felt like it, and a few days later, she'd done it.

Of course, reality wasn't quite as easy, or at least, her old world, but in this new world, Chakra and Fuinjutsu was the way to go. The fluid she had injected into the subject had been fused with a virus commonly found in the Elemental Nations with the aid of Fuinjutsu. She had then added a few other choice viruses and poxes to the mixture, all of which had symptoms similar to the Rage Virus.

The idea eventually came around to being that perhaps she could inoculate her village and allies against the virus, then use it as a deterrent. Anyone who tried to start another war would be infected, the infection being so absolutely infectious and deadly that nobody would risk it. It was kind of like a nuclear deterrent, but instead of nuclear weapons, it was a biological deterrent.

"Akari...what have you done?" Hiruzen asked, his pipe long forgotten as he stared at the corpse of the prisoner. Akari sighed, bringing out the flask of fluid from her inventory before looking at it carefully.

"I...don't really know either Hokage-sama. This...this fluid could be what the bijuu weren't...peace. In a world where things like...like this exist, who would risk war? A single drop of this into the water supply of an enemy village and within days...the village would be reduced to scattered survivors. But...the risk of it mutating, spreading, wiping out the world?" Akari shook her head.

Maybe increased intelligence wasn't all it was cracked up to be. She was smart, but without the wisdom to know never to produce such a thing...Akari put the flask back in her inventory, shivering slightly before nodding at her clones. A few moments passed before they all flipped through hand seals, spewing flames which incinerated every last scrap of biological waste which was contained within the room.

Within moments, all the flesh, blood and other fluids were scourged clean from the earth. "If I may Hokage-sama, I would like this to actually...not be spoken to anyone. Heck, label this fluid as a Kinjutsu if you want to, but nobody is to recreate what I've done here. Not unless we want to see the world end as we know it." Hiruzen lifted his pipe to his lips, taking a puff.

"Just warn me before you do something like this again, alright Akari?"

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 46,445/53,000**

**To Next Level: 6,555**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 66**

**Vitality - 54**

**Endurance - 39**

**Intelligence - 73**

**Agility - 65**

**Wisdom - 88**

**Luck - 41**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_


	23. Chapter 23

**If you leave a review, please check your profile maybe 24 hours after you made it, I respond to any that actually require a response (Aside from Guest reviews, I physically can't, and I don't want to bloat word-counts by answering a ton of reviews. Making an account is free and only needs an email address!)**

_**Chapter 23**_

* * *

"You'll be watching the Kumo delegation tonight."

Raising an eyebrow, Akari waited for the Hokage to elaborate on her orders. "The ANBU who have been observing them strongly believe tonight to be the night they attempt something. The non-aggression pact was signed today, meaning that while diplomatically it would be extremely rude for them to simply leave without a proper departure, they could do so. You are to don your 'Kara' persona and be a visible guard. Hopefully, your mere presence will deter them from any actions. If we can keep this all peaceful, we just might have a longer-lasting peace."

Shrugging, Akari frowned. "I doubt it. If they try something tonight, I'll put a stop to it. If I have to, I'll use my tenants Chakra to ensure it, damn any consequences. If they want to walk into a den of wolves then try to leave after what they plan, I'll make them pay for it with tooth and claw." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at her casual referencing of the Kyuubi.

Of course, she had informed him that she had reached an accord of sorts with the nine-tailed fox during the battle with Orochimaru, meaning she could use his power, but she had been vague about what exactly the accord was. Since Akari wasn't acting too worried about the prospect of using Bijuu chakra, he didn't push her, only acknowledging the advance warning that if the Chakra of the Kyuubi was sensed, that meant something had happened. He quickly dismissed Akari, getting back to his paperwork, letting her leave the room and read her updated quest, smirking to herself.

**Quest received.**

**Eyes of the Beholder.**

**Objectives:**

**Escort the Kumo Shinobi within Konoha.**

**Stop whatever plot they are hatching tonight.**

**Reward: 150,000 experience.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**?**

Without even meaning to, her quest had inadvertently confirmed to her that something was going to happen tonight, something the Kumo-nin were planning. Given how suspiciously the Head Ninja of Kumo was acting, it was pretty obvious that they had some kind of plot they were hatching, but to have it confirmed was nice. She swiftly left the Hokage tower, coincidentally passing the same Genin who tried to pick-pocket her a few days ago. He blanched as he looked up and saw her pass him by with a grin on her lips, checking his pockets hastily when he was a few feet away.

Speaking of pockets, Akari pulled a little vial out of one pocket, gulping the small amount of fluid contained within down quickly, and grimacing at the nasty taste. She had realized when looking through her stats that she actually did have poison resistance, her Vitality gave her a natural resistance. Because she didn't often look at her expanded stats, she forgot all about it. As such, she brewed an incredibly weak poison, then tentatively ingested it. When she swallowed, a menu popped up.

**Poison Resistance, Diluted Poison (Danger Rating - 1)- 55.5%**

**Resistance Calculation: Times Ingested + ((Vit+End)÷2) - Danger Rating = % Poison Resistance**

It was a weirdly simple calculation, but she supposed it worked. The poison she used on that prisoner had a danger rating of 10! That meant she had a resistance of about 36.5%, since she had 93 when adding Vitality and Endurance together, divided by two for 46.5, then since she hadn't ingested it herself yet she had no extra to add, but instead had to remove 10 points of resistance for the danger rating, meaning she ended up with 36.5% resistance. Since it did 13,500 damage, if she ingested that poison, she would take about 8600 damage, rounded up to the nearest hundred.

The diluted poison she was currently maximizing her resistance to was one she had been playing with for a little while, but she was still working at it, ever since she got the idea to turn it into a gaseous form. The basic idea was that while she could be 100% resistant to the poison, everyone else would be affected by it. Granted, it wouldn't do much, but as she got more and more resistant to more types of poison, each one being unleashed in an absolutely toxic combination of gas, anybody who entered the gas cloud other than her would die in seconds.

It would be...glorious.

* * *

"Let's move."

Tapping his partner on the shoulder, the two Kumo shinobi departed from their lodgings, the diplomatic envoy of Kumo having already snuck out of the village. The watcher they'd been assigned was practically sleeping on the other side of the building from where they departed, so they had no trouble evading her. Their target? Bloodlines. Coming to a stop, the head Ninja unsealed several scrolls, handing them to his partner. With a single curt nod, the pair split away from each other, heading for individual targets.

His partner was to attempt to find a Kurama clan member and an Uchiha. He, on the other hand, was to attempt the more dangerous objectives. A Hyuuga was the first on his list. But, he also had the most dangerous and most rewarding target on his list. The last confirmed Uzumaki living, one Uzumaki Naruto, known to be residing within Konoha.

The only problem was that he was living with the Crimson Medic, the Jinchuriki for the Nine-tails, so a direct confrontation would be extremely visible, likely ending up with the entire Shinobi population of Konoha dog-piling onto him. As such, the Uzumaki was to be left until last, since if it was decided retrieval was too difficult, he would be able to flee with the sealed bodies of a Hyuuga and Kurama clan member. Even if his compatriot failed, they would get two bloodline clans, one Dojutsu-wielding clan and one with extremely powerful Genjutsu.

Getting the Uzumaki though, that was the real prize. The boy was still young, so they had a good window to turn him against his home village, keeping him loyal within Konoha and producing more Uzumaki when he became viable. The only problem was actually retrieving him. They knew where he lived, but, every time they tried to plan how to extract him, the wild-card of his guardian would come into play. The presence of a Jinchuriki made many plans unviable, owing to the lack of intelligence regarding her connection with her Bijuu. If she had even the same level of control as the container of the two-tails had, she would be able to easily fend off a normal attacker thanks to the comparative strength of her Bijuu. Taking her on would require a Jinchuriki of their own present, but Konoha would never let a potentially hostile Jinchuriki into their village.

As his mind ran over ideas, he was unaware of the figure stalking him.

* * *

Akari was a bit miffed that the two Shinobi split away from each other, but the two ANBU who were also assigned to his mission went after that one, so that wasn't an issue.

Looking around to reconfirm where they were, Akari frowned. They were approaching the Hyuuga compound. Scratch that, she watching the man leap in one bound straight over the perimeter wall, silent as a cat. They were now intruding upon the Hyuuga compound. She followed him quickly, her mind clicking information together.

So, he was here to steal a Byakugan? She prepped a handful of Senbon, all especially poisoned with her 'potent poison' mix. Each one could inflict the poison strong enough to nearly kill her, so against someone only 4 levels above her? Two, maybe three senbon should guarantee death. Of course, if he had a ridiculous level of Vitality or Endurance he would possibly be able to survive it thanks to a mix between high resistance and a large health pool, but it was unlikely. Most people seemed to be pretty evenly balanced, only a few...unique characters having any difference.

She scampered up the side of a rooftop in pursuit of the figure, hearing a very quiet squeak of surprise from somebody ahead of her. Cursing quietly she redoubled her pace, coming to a sudden stop at the edge of the roof, just in time to watch a small figure disappear into a sealing scroll. Her Sharingan came on instantly, memorizing the tiny face just as it vanished into the sealing scroll. For the brief moment she saw the little figure, she could tell that they were breathing still, her mind instantly put together what that meant...Kumo wanted them alive to continue the bloodline.

Somehow, the mere consideration of what they would do sent anger flooding through her veins. She knew that if she wasn't careful, she would unconsciously pull Kurama's chakra through her coils even if he didn't want to give her it, so despite how much she wanted to rip and tear the bastard apart until he was scattered guts on the grass, she tempered her anger from the fiery rage it was into a cool, collected fury focused entirely on that one man.

As he began getting back up from his kneeling position, Akari's arm slung outwards, releasing a flurry of poisoned Senbon, already pulling more from her inventory. Experienced Shinobi possessed a weird knack for simply feeling when something was about to happen, be it a very faint smell, or sound, or something in the back of their mind screaming.

As such, when the man dodged to the side, letting the Senbon hit the ground next to the sealing scroll, she wasn't surprised. Grinning to herself as she broke the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, she allowed herself a mere moment to glare at him with red swirling eyes, even if the intimidation didn't seem to do as much as she expected, before her hands flashed through three seals, having deposited the Senbon away in favour of a different approach. "Raigeki no Jutsu!" She snapped one finger out to point directly at the enemy Shinobi, a bolt of blue lightning forming before blasting towards her opponent at extreme speed.

Unfortunately, the technique wasn't nearly strong enough to pierce his vest, leaving a heavily-singed patch but no definite physical damage...at least, not outwardly. Internally the lightning would have jumped from the metal plates in his vest straight into his body, electrocuting him. He wasn't idle though, returning her attack with one of his own, his agile hands forming the five seals necessary without effort. "Raiton: Jibashi." He intoned, having schooled his surprised face at seeing Akari use an actual Jutsu, his hands blasting out a wave of electricity with enough force to blast the building Akari was residing on to smithereens.

Akari used a Shunshin to evade the attack, drawing another handful of Senbon to underhanded throw them at her opponent, one hand forming another sequence of hand seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" A giant ball of fire, larger than Akari was tall, formed from her lips, being led by the Senbon. The Kumo Ninja had to abandon the hand seals he was forming to avoid the attack entirely, leaving to score across the ground before slamming to a stop against another building. "Whoops." Akari muttered, but managed no more as she was forced on the defensive.

"Jigokuzuki!" The Nin wreathed his hand in Lightning Chakra, getting in close to Akari to try and stab her with the blade-like lightning around his fingers. Akari blinked in surprise. The man was literally trying to hand-to-hand against someone who spent 8 years as a Bukijutsu wielder, on top of that possessing a Sharingan? Either he was extremely confident in his hand-to-hand, or he hadn't learned much about her.

Her Sharingan aided her immensely at avoiding his blows, spotting feints and false openings quickly, letting her focus on the real openings, capitalizing on this advantage mercilessly. She ducked under one finger-strike, her palm snapping up to hand a sharp blow against his elbow. The man pulled his arm up to flow wit the strike, his leg kicking up to attempt a strike at her stomach.

Akari avoided this by merely breaking off her palm-strike, leaning backwards then rolling to the side as he pivoted into a roundhouse kick, her fingers forming three hand-seals. "Katon: Zukokku!" She carefully controlled the amount of Chakra she pushed into the Jutsu, just enough for a wave of flame, but not enough to spread into the surrounding areas, then formed another four hand seals. "Raiton: Raikyu!" Several balls of yellow energy popped into existence, immediately flying into the inferno and seeking her target, handing several electrified blows on him before he emerged, a snarl on his lips, one Akari met with a wild grin of her own, unsealing her daggers into a ready stance.

She snapped one arm up to deflect a Kunai thrown, her eyes not leaving her opponent as he closed the distance, lightning still cracking along one hand, whilst his other one-handedly flipped through seals. "Raiton: Raiju Tsuiga." A strand of lightning snapped away from his hand, quickly forming into a dog shape, which then began charging Akari, forcing her to split her focus. She threw one of her precious knives in order to buy some time, making the hound dodge as she dipped beneath a Kunai strike, slapping her hands together before channelling lightning-nature chakra into the flat of her palm, then pressing outwards with a thunderclap of force, striking her opponent straight in the chest with enough force to send him a few dozen feet back, which also split the connection he had with his lightning beast, electricity still crackling over her skin before she forced it back to her coils, denaturing it again.

Her hand felt a bit tender and was visibly red, but she could still fight just fine. She swept her knife back up while her opponent recovered, then initiated a Shunshin to close the distance, swiping one dagger at his throat whilst the other was held defensively at her midriff, a prudent choice as she deflected an underhand Kunai strike the man threw at her. He tipped his entire body so the knife struck his cheek, dropping backwards and snapping a foot up to kick at her chin, planting one hand firmly on the ground. Akari merely backstopped, watching the man swiftly flip himself upright and growl at her.

Her opponent had already ascertained that she had some kind of advantage in hand-to-hand against him, using another Raiton: Jibashi to open distance between the pair. He began forming five hand seals then thrusting his hands against the ground. "Raiton: Shichu Shibari!" He forced four pillars of stone out through the ground, one of which smashed apart another building as it emerged.

Sparks ran up the rocks, the only warning Akari got before they erupted, lightning spraying wildly in spears between the four rocks. But, right in the centre, Akari smirked, unmoving and uncaring as the bolts speared towards her. "Raiton: Ryushu." A cloak of lightning began warping around Akari, each strand destined for her body being swatted out of the air by the cloak. "Like it? I admit, I got the idea after the Kyuubi described how a Chakra cloak worked." The enemy Ninja gawped for only a moment, testament to his skill as he changed to another Chakra Nature.

"Futon: Fuhakujin!" He swiped his hand sideways, a barely-visible blade of wind rocketing forwards and disrupting Akari's concentration, forcing her to Shunshin away. As the four earth pillars crumbled from the lack of Chakra maintaining them, the two nin glared at each other. Akari rolled an arm, surreptitiously checking her status.

She had used about twenty percent of her Chakra during the fight, but because of that, she hadn't lost more than a few hundred hit-points from light scrapes and shocks during the hand-to-hand she entered briefly. By contrast, she expected the enemy nin to have used more Chakra than her, and lost more health, since she'd hit him several times already, even if she couldn't get a Senbon or Jutsu to breach his defences. Mentally going back in the fight, she cursed herself for not using her inventory to slip a Senbon into her hand once it was past his guard.

But, she couldn't change the past, so instead she mentally prepared for...oh, that was just precious. "Kai!" She yelled, immediately rolling to the side to avoid another wind-blade. "Did...you really just try to use a Genjutsu on a fucking Uchiha?" She shook her head. She expected the man to be smart, but he tried to Genjutsu an Uchiha. Literally the worst targets for a Genjutsu. Wait a minute...she was still! "Kai!" She flexed her Chakra again in a hurry, revealing that the man was already lunging forward with a lightning-wreathed hand, having used the brief time the two illusions bought him to close the entire distance.

As it parted the skin and began digging into her abdomen, his fingers curling into her intestines, Akari yelled out in surprised pain, before wreathing her hand in pure Fire-natured Chakra which blackened the skin of the Kumo-nin as she snatched his wrist, forcing him to retreat without wounding Akari further. "Fucking prick." She muttered, having released her grip on him to instead stifle the flames on her arm. She checked how much health she lost and blanched.

**-4626HP.**

That seemed like an unfair amount of health to lose. Then again, he did curl his fingers inside of her to try and rip as much damage into her internally as he could, then on top of that she literally lit her arm on fire to make him let go of her. The skin there was blackened and cracking, the pain excruciatingly bad as the nerves fired repeatedly about how fucking painful the wound was.

For a moment, she considered perhaps developing a Jutsu or poison to inhibit pain, but that was a dumb idea, pain told her where she was wounded, without it she could be walking around with a hole in her back. The Kumo-nin definitely seemed wary of approaching her now. To be fair though, fighting an enemy willing to light themselves on fire to get their assailant to back off was a fair reason to stay away. Akari flexed her burnt hand with a grimace, she couldn't form hand-seals with it any more, meaning anything that absolutely required two-handed seals like her more heavy-hitting Jutsu were out.

Considering they were in the Hyuuga Compound, she wanted to avoid using them anyway, so it wasn't a huge loss. She pondered her options, keeping a wary eye on her opponent, whose eyes flickered between her and the abandoned scroll behind her. He hadn't noticed until too late that Akari was pushing him away from it. He raised his hands to form seals again, but he was hit with a wave of nausea and pain from nowhere.

His opponent hadn't moved, but a grin was now on her lips. Staring at her for a few moments, his eyes widened, pressing his hands together as quickly as his nauseated and pain-racked body could manage. "Kai." He spoke through grit teeth, dispelling the second layer of False Surroundings Genjutsu just in time to see Akari stab another two senbon into his chest next to the first two, which had dispelled the first level of illusion as he was struck.

"You know, you really should read up on the Uchiha...if you survive this." She then brought one leg up, axe-kicking the disoriented nin right in the top of his head, knocking him out, before sighing. She knelt down, making doubly sure he was unconscious before applying a paralysis seal then using the Poison Extraction Jutsu to make sure he didn't die. "Idiot."

Then Akari realized why he'd done what he did, and felt like slapping her own face out of the stupidity. She was still using her Nikutai-Teki Sakkaku Fuinjutsu, so he saw Akari, not Akari. That meant he had no idea she even had a Sharingan. If she was more adept at using the illusionary techniques that the Sharingan gave, she would probably have been able to end that fight way quicker, as he had met her eyes numerous times during the battle. But, that didn't matter.

Her guts felt like they were burning, and her hand and arm had literally been burnt, but she wasn't losing HP, which meant her regeneration had already kicked in, slowly closing her wounds. On the other hand, the unconscious nin in front of her would die from the poison of her four Senbon if she didn't remove it, making him a higher priority than herself, even if she did want to stop the rictus of pain her body was in from plaguing her.

She glanced over at the scroll containing the captive Hyuuga, relieved to see that it was still in one piece. Hopefully, it was the kind that had a failsafe if the scroll was damaged, but considering Kumo-nin weren't great with Fuinjutsu, chances were the body of the Hyuuga would have just been lost to the void if the scroll was damaged. Cracking her neck, Akari kept filtering the poison out of the Kumo-nin's body, stopping when she was confident that he would only take a mild amount of damage. As she stood up to approach the scroll on the floor, she silently brought up her notifications.

**Random status inflicted: Nausea**

That explained why the guy didn't just look like he was in extreme pain, but also looked ready to throw his guts up. That was quite useful. "Wow, this fucking sucks." She remarked upon taking longer to actually look at the crude Fuinjutsu scrubbed on the scroll. It was a miracle that the body was actually contained, it was just as likely that the body would have been grabbed, then mulched into a ball of flesh, before being spat back out as the scroll would then burn into ash.

Shrugging, she planted one hand on the scroll, having identified the release point of the scroll, then pushed a small wave of her Chakra into it. The small girl she'd seen placed within the seal appeared on the floor, fearful lavender eyes darting around for a moment before spotting the unconscious body of the Kumo-nin, with Akari kneeling beside her. "W-what happened?" She asked, rubbing her head with a wince.

Akari could see a lump forming on the side of her head under her hair thanks to her Sharingan, so evidently the Kumo-nin didn't even have a paralysis tag available to him. "You almost got captured by an enemy nin, little one." Her eyes widened dramatically. It was honestly adorable. Not quite as adorable as Naruto could be, but cute. "You're fine now, but maybe we should find whose responsible for you, hmm?" The little girl nodded emphatically, her eyes tearing away from the unconscious body to look at Akari's, directly at her eyes.

Normally, nobody would meet the eyes of an Uchiha using the Sharingan, too afraid of being caught under a Genjutsu. Since she was still using her scroll, the girl had no idea who she was actually looking at. "C-can I hold your h-hand?" She asked sheepishly...one foot toeing the ground beneath her. Akari couldn't resist any more.

"Oh, you are just adorable!" She claimed, picking the girl up and planting her up on her shoulders, ignoring her squeak of surprise as she looked around. Casually unfurling a body-holding scroll, she threw it at the Kumo-nin, the end of the scroll smacking him in the face and making the girl on her shoulders giggle. She knelt down to plant a finger on the scroll and seal his body, one of the few times an open-toed set of shoes would be better than the boots she wore, then picked the scroll up and replaced it in her inventory. "By the way little one..." She de-activated the scroll she was using, surprising the girl as her entire appearance changed. "Nice to meet ya, I'm Akari."

The girl looked a bit afraid for a moment as she saw Akari's crimson eyes turn to glance up at her, but the grin on Akari's face offset any lingering fear her family had instilled about the Uchiha. It helped that she was so young, an older Hyuuga would probably have never trusted her like that. "I-i'm Hinata...Hinata Hyuuga..." She spoke sheepishly, squawking in surprise when Akari poked her forehead, making her look down to her in surprise.

"None of that Hinata-chan, though I'm glad they haven't found a stick to use on you yet!" The girl was obviously confused about the allusion to Hyuugas with sticks up theirs, but that was fine. "Now then, which of these lovely, totally-not-on-fire houses is yours?" The girl took one hand off of Akari's shoulders to point towards a building. "That one eh? Well, let's go say hello, since it seems people are very happy to just watch us warily!" She yelled the last part, unfortunately startling the girl on her back, though she quickly reassured her, then glared up at the rooftops where she could see assembled Shinobi merely watching. "Is anyone going to use a Suiton, or is today the day that the Hyuuga compound burns down in a giant fire?"

Several of the Shinobi disappeared, leading to hissing sounds as fires were put out. One Shinobi approached, clad in the robes of the Hyuuga, and peered at Akari suspiciously before looking at Hinata. "Uchiha-san, what exactly happened here for you to light our compound alight and walk with one of our own on your shoulders? If I do not like your answer, I will capture you before bringing you before the Hokage to resolve this matter." Akari rolled her eyes.

"Well, little Hinata-chan here-" The Hyuuga's cheek twitched at her use of suffix. "-was about to become very well acquainted with Kumoese society. I was assigned to keep an eye on the Kumo delegation, so when I followed him and saw him sealing little Hinata-chan-" He twitched again, eyes darkening slightly, which on a Hyuuga was pretty amusing to see. "-I stepped in and stopped him. Since he didn't want to come quietly, I had to fight him, leading to...well, all of this." The man eyed her carefully, then looked up at Hinata, who after a moment of looking down at Akari, nodded to the man.

"I...see. Well, I'm sure the Hokage will clear all of this up then?" Akari grinned and nodded, surprising the man.

"Well, he's the one who ordered me to stop them should they try anything, so considering I didn't use the Kyuubi's chakra, he'll probably applaud my restraint." The man blanched, making his already-pale skin look ghostly. It was hilarious, but absolutely infuriating since the current situation meant bursting out laughing was one of those things she just wasn't allowed to do. "Now, can I ask where exactly this little one is meant to be?"

She bumped her shoulders up once for good measure, Hinata giggling slightly at the motion. "She is to be returned to the home of the Clan Head, Hiashi-sama." Now it was Akari's turn to be surprised, raising an eyebrow as she turned her head to look up at Hinata, who wilted under her gaze and gave a sheepish, almost afraid nod, hiding her face behind Akari's head.

"Well, better not keep him waiting, I'm sure Hiashi is worried about his daughter." She muttered, jumping her shoulders once then setting off for the home of the Hyuuga Clan Head. So, it turned out that the little girl Kumo tried to kidnap was actually the daughter of the Clan Head? That was ballsy. But...Hinata's reaction to her father was extremely off-putting to Akari...

As was the tightening fists she could feel on her vest as they got closer to Hinata's home...

* * *

**Okay, the Hyuuga Affair has now kicked off.**

**Akari defeated the Kumo Head Ninja without killing him, so one of their best arguments for receiving a Hyuuga as payment has been kicked in the teeth...twice. First, because he isn't dead, and secondly because it wasn't a Hyuuga that defeated him.**

**Akari has now met Hinata, and summarily decided she's adorable. I don't know what I'm going to do with her, the last little tidbit of unspoken backstory being a bit of my own head-canon.**

**The quest Akari was assigned, so nobody asks why it hasn't popped, will be completed after she gives her mission report to Hiruzen.**

**ALSO! Akari was still using the Nikutai-Teki Sakkaku Fuinjutsu, she merely disabled the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, her stealth cloak she learned from the Pandas. That was why he didn't know that she was an Uchiha, visible she was still Akari, meaning he got thrown off, since she was fighting at a level far higher than a Chunin.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 46,445/53,000**

**To Next Level: 6,555**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 66**

**Vitality - 54**

**Endurance - 39**

**Intelligence - 73**

**Agility - 65**

**Wisdom - 88**

**Luck - 41**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_


	24. Chapter 24

**The votes are in, massively favouring Akari.**

**As such, the story is changing the MC's name again. Last time though, I swear, Akari is a name I quite like.**

**This one deals with a few harsh topics. Only talking about them, nothing extremely happens to Akari or anyone, but some unpleasant things are spoken about, that's why I bumped this story up to M-rated, for safety. It's only like two or so sentences, but for a topic as uncomfortable as that makes me feel, I think a warning is prudent.**

**Meh, whatever, probably me being over-sensitive to shit again.**

_**Chapter 24**_

* * *

Stepping up onto the porch of the house, Akari knelt down, placing Hinata gently on the ground before rapping her knuckles on the door.

Her feelings of ill-ease about the entire situation weren't dissuaded at all when the door slid open to reveal the implacable face of Hyuuga Hiashi, who glanced between her and his daughter before turning around and re-entering his house wordlessly. Akari looked down at Hinata, who had a forlorn expression marring her face. On a whim, she reached down to ruffle her hair, bringing the young girl to look up at her with tear-filled eyes.

Akari looked into the house with a frown. He didn't even ask what was going on, he just...left her standing on the porch like so much trash. Of course, with the strained-at-best relationship between Uchiha and Hyuuga, she wasn't surprised to be treated as such, but the fact that he even turned his back on his own daughter like that...after looking after Naruto for so long, she knew how important presence and love was during the formulating years of young children.

It explained why Hinata seemed so shy and closed-off, if her father regularly acted like that around her then her self-confidence would be completely thrown in the dumpster. Unfortunately, without due reason, there wasn't really much Akari could do. This world didn't have child protective services or any equivalent. In extreme circumstances, the Hokage could step in and force those in question to behave better, but simple mistreatment, involving a Clan Head and his heiress daughter to boot, was not something that Hiruzen could stick his nose in, not without repercussions.

She gave one final rub to the young girls head, spoke a quiet goodbye, then even as she wanted to just pick the girl up, take her to the Hokage and demand that something be done, she left her on that porch alone. Or at least, she tried. The girl clamped her arms around Akari's leg, stopping her from moving, the fabric of her skirt being dampened as the girl cried into her leg. "P-please d-don't go!" Akari knelt down, taking the girls hands into her own.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm sorry. I don't want you to go in there, it feels so...cold." Rubbing her thumb across her cheeks, she brushed the falling tears away. "But there's nothing I can do. Your father is a very...important man. Even if I tried to tell people about how he acts around you, nobody would care, some wouldn't even believe me, thinking me to be trying to ruin his good name." The girl was bawling now, repeatedly begging Akari to just take her away, she hated it there.

Sighing softly to herself, she slipped a small seal from her inventory, wrapping her arms around the young girl even as she murmured another apology, then placed the sleep-inducing tag onto the young girl, who fell unconscious quickly, leaving Akari to lift her up and walk into the house, wiping her boots down i the Genkan even if she didn't remove them, not intending to stay long. She noted that there was no sign of an adult female presence in the home, only things a man would use, and even those were not common. In all, the home felt barely lived-in, like a place people slept, but not much else.

Akari spotted a room with a very faintly pink-tinted paint coating it, quickly peering inside after gently knocking to see that it was a girls room, presumably Hinata's. She walked over to the bed and laid her down, quickly rolling her covers up over the young girl, then exiting and making for the door quickly. A voice called out clearly as she passed one door.

"I see you have taken the liberty of putting my daughter to sleep." She resisted the urge to growl at the emotionless tone that Hiashi spoke at, walking into the room his voice came from to see him seated seiza-style on a zabuton, sipping some kind of drink from a cup, then gesturing towards another cushion with his free hand. "Sit, so you may explain your presence in my compound."

It was official, Akari really hated this man.

* * *

After explaining as much of the situation as she could be bothered to, without taking a seat, she departed from the room quickly, then the compound, her fists clenched.

The man was...words didn't describe how much she wanted to punch him in the face. The only things stopping her were the facts that he was the Hyuuga Clan head, and that she'd observed him. The man was a level 68. Considering the Hyuuga were primarily hand-to-hand fighters using the Gentle Fist, he didn't need anything to whoop her ass. She doubted that even channelling Kurama's chakra would change the outcome of her getting her Tenketsu closed off one by one, or much faster if he deigned to use the Eight Trigrams 64 Palms, which would seal every Tenketsu point on her body.

Or at least, enough Tenketsu that channelling Chakra to any point of her body would be impossible. Because of those two things, she stayed her hand, instead leaving the absolutely infuriating man behind in his home

But, as she leapt onto a rooftop, she glanced back at the compound, unfurling her fingers to feel them cracking from the force she'd clenched with. No matter how much she loathed how that man treated his daughter, there was practically nothing she could do to change that fact. Even if she had a good reason, it was her word against the word of a Clan Head, by extension the word of the entire Clan. For all she knew, that was how all young Hyuuga were brought up, which went a long way to explaining why they all had sticks longer than the Hokage's Adamantine Staff lodged up their collective asses.

Shaking her head to remove the bizarre mental image, she leapt across the village before coming to a stop in front of her apartment, her knives dropping from seals as her lips pulled back into a feral snarl.

Her seals were offline, and the door was wide-open.

She activated her Sharingan, careful to avoid disturbing anything which could be evidence, quickly clearing the apartment and ascertaining that Naruto was, in fact, gone. The door was wide-open, as was the kitchen window. Growling lowly, she exited the window, hopping across to the next building along and all but lighting the ground on fire with the force of her glare as she searched for tracks, but found nothing, leaving her to switch her Sharingan off, glaring around but with nothing to chase.

She briefly considered dragging Kakashi and his ninken out here to track Naruto, but decided that would take too long. She didn't have any spectres off the top of her head who could track effectively. Minato might be able to, but it was a big might, and very risky to suddenly have the Fourth Hokage run through his village. Perhaps...she bit her thumb, swiping the blood on the ground after forming the hand-seals for..."Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Black Fuinjutsu appeared, poofing into existence a single Red Panda, having been summoned thanks to the strong sense of smell a red panda possessed. "No time to explain, kidnapped child, get the scent from this-" She pulled one of Naruto's shirts from her inventory, having never gotten the chance to wash it. "-and find him. Do it quickly, and I'll give you a wagon-full of bamboo shoots." The panda nodded, pawing at the shirt and sniffing a few times, then jerking its head up and bolting off across rooftops at top speed, whilst Akari replaced the shirt in her inventory and gave pursuit, keeping pace with the small panda, her eyes scanning rooftops.

The panda led her right to the Konoha wall, then running straight into it, but instead of bouncing off the giant wall, instead went straight through what appeared to be solid matter. Akari didn't let it phase her, running straight into the same section, but made sure to glimpse the location with her Sharingan, just so she could tell the Hokage what she had found. They quickly emerged on the other side of the wall, hurtling through the treeline at a breakneck pace.

Then, the panda she summoned stopped dead, tilting its head and looking around. "Akari-sama...we are surrounded." As the panda spoke, several dozen blank-masked individuals appeared, each dressed as ANBU but clearly hostile in their postures and the fact that nearly all of then had drawn their blades. Those who didn't had their hands ready to form seals for Jutsu.

"I know." She said softly, sending the summon away in a puff of smoke. Then, in front of everyone, she closed her eyes. A few tense moments passed, nobody moving, before she snapped her lids open again, the spiralling pinwheels of the Uchiha Dojutsu plain for all to see as Akari pushed half of her entire Chakra reserves into the Jutsu she was using, the one unique to her, unseen by any still-breathing human. Even if she didn't have to call out its name, it seemed fitting to announce the technique which would annihilate all these bastards.

"Megami no Mon!"

Two white forms appeared from the ground, solidifying first merely as two pairs of shoes, then legs, waist, torsos, before the rest of their bodies fully formed, leaving two individuals standing on either side of Akari, who both blinked once and looked around curiously. Akari granted the two individuals free will, immediately having a pair of arms wrapped around her neck from one side. "Kushina-san, please, we're in a situation here!" On her other side, Minato merely looked at her with a grin, completely unwilling to help her.

"Oh, those masked bastards? Don't worry Akari-chan, I've got an Adamantine Sealing Chain for each and every one of them if they attacked you." Akari sweat-dropped at Kushina's blunt declaration, then grinned as she remembered something, whispering into her ear something which made her release Akari, her fists balling up. "They WHAT?" Even separated from her Bijuu, Kushina still possessed a deadly level of Killing Intent it seemed, the very air itself heavy with the pure fury rolling off the red-headed woman, golden chains sprouting from the small of her back, even as her face was a tightly-controlled mask.

"So Akari, would you mind explaining what's going on now?" Kushina's face snapped to Minato's in surprise, then at Akari's, said girl facepalming.

"Okay fine, Naruto got kidnapped, my summons animal tracked him this way, and these guys appeared to stop me. There's no fucking way I'm letting them get between me and Naruto though, so instead of waiting to reveal you, I brought you both out early. Well, now we can kick these pricks to the dirt, get Naruto back, then head back to Konoha before you two run out of Chakra."

Kushina flipped her hair over her shoulder, clad in her Jonin vest, which was something Akari had never seen before. Minato palmed one of his Kunai, wearing the familiar flame-emblazoned Haori as always. "You didn't even have to ask Akari." With those short words, Minato released his Kunai, pressing his fingers together into a cross. "Taju Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" His one Hiraishin-tagged Kunai erupted into several hundred. While none injured any of the assorted nin, they scattered heavily over the area.

Before any of the nin could retreat, Minato was already flashing around, every time a hostile nin got too close to a Kunai he appeared with two more Kunai ready, slashing out throats, cutting across tendons, and truly living up to his name as the Yellow Flash. Kushina was also busily stabbing through hostiles with her Chakra chains, occasionally delving into Taijutsu when one approached her. Those years spent in the Pure Lands certainly hadn't made her any weaker.

Akari was stood in the centre of this carnage, not seeing an opportunity to really help the pair of extremely experienced Shinobi in their combat. Minato could probably single-handedly deal with every foe, and Kushina was certainly not a pushover by any stretch, both worthy of the titles they'd earned.

Perhaps, if the matchup was more even allowing for her to aid the other two rather than staying idle and stationary, or maybe if Akari hadn't held back her spare points, she might have avoided the surprise attack from her side. It wasn't a physical attack though, far from it. Hidden carefully in the trees, all it took was an unhindered look at her face, and a Jutsu was cast. Barely audible, and without even realizing it, Akari was spoken to. "Dispel your technique." The order said.

Without even questioning it, Akari brought her hands up into a cross, forcibly sending Minato and Kushina away again. Surprised to feel the chakra lent to him vanishing into nothingness, he turned just in time to see a bandaged figure step out from the tree-line, but vanished before he could get anywhere near, Kushina having already disappeared entirely with no Kurama supporting her in terms of Chakra.

"Kneel." Akari followed the order despite her confusion. She didn't know why she listened to that order, nor the order before, just that she absolutely had to do so. "So, even after all this time, you still have more secrets." Her eyes tracked the bandaged old man as he approached, her hand twitching to throw a Kunai at him. "Do not attack me." Then, her hostility towards him vanished like the wind, as if she couldn't even consider attacking the man.

How? How did he hold such power over her? Was she a sleeper agent or something? But she didn't remember anything like that...maybe Genjutsu, or a Yamanaka technique, something to suppress memories? All she knew was that some deeply-ingrained part of her psyche followed his order implicitly, over-riding any other considerations she had. "Hmm, I suppose this would be the time a lesser Shinobi would mock their opponent. Suffice to say, that is unnecessary. Follow me. Do not try to flee, or contact anybody else. Do not use a Jutsu of any kind."

As her head unwillingly bobbed in accordance, she felt herself, or rather her mind, be pulled backwards into her own head.

* * *

**"Kit, you get what's going on yet?"**

Akari blinked up at Kurama, who's snout was close to the bars, peering down at her. She shook her head, looking up further to where she could see the outside world, her body moving of its own will to follow the bandaged man, Danzo, she recalled. **"You got caught in a Genjutsu. This one though...it's nastier than any I've seen before. It doesn't force you into anything, it tricks your own head into doing it, believing it to be your own idea. You're lucky your head's so fucked up, otherwise, you wouldn't even be aware of what you were doing differently. But being aware that you aren't doing something willingly and being able to stop yourself are two different things, Kit."**

Frowning, Akari tipped her head. "So, I'm being fucked with inside my own head, which makes it so that I listen to what Danzo says implicitly, but because it's my own brain making those decisions, breaking out is pretty much impossible?" The fox nodded, planting his head on his paws.

**"Look, brat, do you trust me? Because I have a plan, but you have to trust me completely for it."** Akari hummed. On one hand, he was a giant fox made up of chakra. But on the other, he'd helped her when she was about to die, he was funny, and...he was like a permanent companion. Her own little foxy-devil sat on one shoulder. She grinned and nodded quickly. **"Okay, here's my plan. I'm going to need you to tear this seal off."** He tapped the metal back of the cage where the seal was located whilst Akari frowned.

"But that would let all of your Chakra flow into me. My body can only handle one tail right now, using two left me dead-on-my-feet after a minute, remember?" The giant fox grimaced at the memory. Akari's skin had literally been flayed off, exposing the subcutaneous bone and muscle of her body as his caustic Chakra literally burned her skin off, leaving her bleeding from practically every point over her body. She only survived thanks to the fact that she could heal herself to effectively, alongside himself granting her enhanced regeneration by pouring an extra-large trickle of his Chakra into her coils, not enough to become an issue, but enough to fuel her healing.

**"Yes, it will hurt. There's a good chance your body will quite literally explode from Chakra overload, or your coils will rupture permanently, leaving you unable to contain Chakra. But what it'll also do is give me access to your body, replacing you as...well, to put it simply, as the driver of your body. You'll be in here, and I'll be out there. This is why you have to trust me."** The mindscape rumbled, drawing bot their eyes skyward, where her body had just been jostled as she entered a doorway hidden in stone, similar to the hole in Konoha's wall. **"Because, and I'm telling you this because I trust you as well, if I chose to, I'd be able to tear myself out of your body, reforming near-instantly. The downside to this would be that it would literally burn out your Chakra network completely releasing that much energy...it would guarantee your death."**

Akari bit her lip. She did trust Kurama, really, but something niggled her mind. It was probably the fact that to give up control of her body felt so...wrong. Then again, right now she wasn't in control of her physical body anyway. Looking up at the giant fox, she finally decided, smiling softly at him. "Just promise you bring us both back in one piece, yeah?" Without waiting for him to respond, she threw herself skyward, one hand slamming straight into the diminutive black seal, tearing it clean away from the cage

Then, her body exploded in pain.

* * *

Danzo was having a very good evening.

With the Kumo Head Ninja captured, he could leisurely decide when to kill the imprisoned man using one of his planted ROOT agents, thus sparking a renewed war between Konoha and Kumo thanks to the cold-hearted murder of one of their best, at the same time depriving them of a valuable asset. That would be extremely useful, as Hiruzen would be forced to allow him to officially re-instate ROOT thanks to the fact that, with his careful actions, Konoha wasn't strong enough to deal with Kumo as it stood, meaning no longer would he have to hide his organization from the weak-willed Kage.

But the real cherry on the evening was the young Uchiha marching along behind him. It was certainly worth the risk, the capturing of Uchiha Shisui and stealing of his eyes. Even since the foolish boy revealed that he had such a powerful unique Dojutsu, Danzo itched to get his hands on those eyes, and now he had them. Or rather, they only managed to obtain one before he broke free and fled, but a single eye was enough to enthrall one person, and who better than the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails?

He knew, from notes submitted by Shisui himself who also mentioned that he simply knew it intuitively when he unlocked his Mangekyo, much like how the Uchiha behind him knew how to use her own ability, that the Kotoamatsukami he had just used was only usable once every decade, a crippling deficiency. But, there were extremely few targets better than the container of the strongest Bijuu for this single use Genjutsu.

The attack by Kumo attempting to kidnap several various clan members of Konoha was excellent for his plans, forcing her away from her one true weakness, giving a vast opening for his ROOT to capture Uzumaki Naruto, thus baiting her away from the village. If she hadn't followed as she did, she would have lost the boy in the forest. It would have been a lesser prize, but being in control of one of the few remaining Uzumaki meant that he could breed the next generation of ROOT at his leisure to be stronger than before, a backbone of specially-bred Uzumaki descendants with their high vitality and tenacity, alongside their Fuinjutsu affinity.

But he was getting off track. Uchiha Akari, the Crimson Medic, Sannin-slayer, Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed fox, was under his thrall. He could have attempted to bait her in another way, but killing three, or possibly more, birds with a single stone was an extremely good outcome from this Kumo situation. With this outcome, he could spin how she and her adopted son had disappeared any number of ways, making Konoha believe anything from the pair fleeing the village to find a new life elsewhere, or dying from some cause or another, it didn't matter, he had her right where he wanted her, under his control.

Perfect to be moulded into a weapon against Konoha's enemies. She couldn't disobey, Kotoamatsukami was too powerful for that. It left her helpless against his orders, which would allow him to train her in any number of ways. If he told her to practice push-ups until her fingers broke, she would be compelled to do so. Or if he ordered her to kill a dozen children, she would do so without hesitation. If only he could use the ability on all of Konoha, but alas, he had to make do with a single perfectly-obedient thrall.

He strode straight into the large rocky outcropping, passing through the illusionary technique carelessly, then descending downwards into one of the many entrances ROOT had. They all networked across Konoha, and all were easily defendable or collapsible, meaning that even if one were to be found, they could simply seal that tunnel up entirely, making it impossible to find the true heart of ROOT, which was located deep underneath the Hokage Mountain.

He could hear the monotonous footsteps of the Uchiha follow him in, not even stuttering in her pace to follow his orders. Idly, he realized that somehow, he didn't have a single Uchiha in his ROOT. He resolved to correct this oversight, momentarily considering perhaps even using the obedient Uchiha to produce more, but shook his head. Putting her out of fighting shape for that long would only be worth the effort when she was incapable of fighting, something he would likely never be around to see, barring extreme injury that was.

No, there were plenty of Uchiha he could attempt to obtain, Uchiha far less valuable who he could trap within the ROOT of Konoha, producing him young, easily-malleable Uchiha to form into the perfect soldiers. There was only one Uchiha Akari. "Alright, you shall be stayin-" He had come to a stop, barely beginning to give the girl her new orders and living quarters, when a wave of Bijuu-tainted chakra washed over him. The girl had closed his eyes when he wasn't looking, and as they re-opened a pair of slitted eyes stared back at him. The voice that came out of her lips sent a shiver down even his hardened spine.

**"Well hello there, Ningen."** 'Akari' growled, Danzo taking only a moment to realize that the girl was no longer in control. Before he could speak, another wave of pure Chakra blasted out, knocking him back by sheer volume alone. Around the possessed girl, a cloak of pure Chakra began forming, yellow in colour, making the girl look as though she'd been lit on fire.

As he glared, the girl vanished. For a brief moment, her entire Chakra presence disappeared, an impossible feat for so much Chakra, before blasting into his back, sending him flying forwards. He choked up blood, having felt her knuckles digging deep into his spine. He waited a few moments, enduring the agonizing pain before, as she came for another punch to finish him off, he used Izanagi, making the wound that appeared on his body disappeared entirely, as well as positioning himself to avoid the second punch. As this happened, his left eye closed behind clean white bandages, now useless.

"ROOT, capture her!" He yelled, backing away from her as those red-slit eyes burned into him. As several blank-masked nin swarmed in towards her, she roared, a bestial thing, before speckles of blue and red began coalescing together in front of her mouth at an incredible speed, a ball of tainted purple Chakra quickly forming before her face. He only had those few brief moments to identify the attack before it was unleashed, erupting in a giant wave of purple which engulfed the traitorous old man instantly.

The central ROOT base was almost completely vaporized in the attack, ending the life of he and many of his brainwashed ninja in a single instant.

* * *

Panting in the giant underground sphere he'd just made with his final attack, Kurama turned his attention inward.

Akari was sat cross-legged within their shared mind-scape, feverishly working away at a complicated Fuinjutsu seal that boggled even his ancient mind to look at. **"Are you almost done Akari? Your body won't handle more than another minute of this."** The body he was using then reflexively choked up a large glob of blood, spitting it out on the floor with a grimace. **"Scratch that, twenty seconds at most."**

Seeming to almost ignore his words, Akari swirled another line of ink, never before so grateful of her inventory allowing her to bring items into her Mindscape. Without it, she would have been absolutely fucked. She swiped another line across the scroll, then bit her thumb, quickly rubbing her blood out over her digit before planting it firmly in the centre of the seal, binding the whole thing together. "Okay, push your Chakra through the seal, then on the other side, reconnect it to my Chakra network." The large Bijuu did so, Akari watching carefully as the extremely potent Chakra receded from her system, being held back and only filtered through based on how much the pair currently wanted.

It was a very stop-gap solution, one she would have to fix in future, but as evidenced by his words, if she'd tried for anything more, her body would have given out. Speaking of which..."Kurama, are you ready to swap again?" She asked. Right now...they were hanging in the balance. The giant Bijuu had all the control. She didn't have the knowledge to force him back out of her body, so she could only hope that her trust wasn't misplaced.

**"You know, I loathe Uchiha. I only attacked Konoha because an Uchiha forced me. And before that, I was used as a weapon against your First Hokage by the traitorous Madara. The Uchiha always let themselves fall to the curse of hatred, making them unworthy of my care."** Akari's fingers began twitching in nervousness. **"And to then be sealed into that...that witch! Mito Uzumaki, bah, always preaching to me about how I should just lay dormant within her seal, that only hatred can come of my power."**

Akari rubbed her hair, her mind trying to think of what Kurama was getting at. if he was going to go back on their deal, then he might as well just fucking come out and say it. **"Then Kushina. Kushina. She...wasn't so bad honestly."** That surprised Akari, Kurama always spoke about how he'd been literally stabbed through by several giant wooden spikes, with chains pinning him sideways to a rock, so for him to say that was odd. **"She wasn't a hypocrite. She spoke honestly, she acknowledged that just as I keep the World at bay, she kept me at bay from Konoha. While misdirected, my actions definitely didn't give me lee-way to complain."**

Akari then felt his gaze turn towards her. **"And then, finally, we come to you. Akari Uchiha. A member of the Clan who for generations have been nothing but hate-filled scum, not even worth dirtying my paws with to exterminate like the rodents they are. Part of a small group of Dojutsu wielders able to control even the Bijuu, including myself!"**

She winced, Akari figured he would never just submit like that, not again. Well, at least she got revenge against Danzo for kidnapping Naruto. **"And yet, you never succumbed to the curse of hatred."** Her head snapped up as she felt Kurama's chakra recede, regaining feeling in her physical body. **"You found something you wanted to protect, and when it was taken away, you didn't snap. You continued trundling on, having been given something even more precious to protect. So...-"** Kurama stuck his gigantic paw through the wide-open bars of what used to be a cage, clenching a fist. **"-let's go find that Kit, eh Akari?" **Holding back her tears at hearing him actually say her name, Akari nodded, pressing her own fist forwards in a gentle bump.

"Yeah...I'd like that."

* * *

**Omigodthatwassofuckinggoodtowriteholyshit!**

**Seriously, that scene just came out of fucking NOWHERE! I wrote a quarter of this chapter, then came up with the whole 'Kyuubi gets her to open the seal then plays at maybe leaving her to die but ends up staying with her', but holy shit, writing that end scene...I fucking loved writing that.**

**I really, REALLY hope you enjoyed that!**

**And NO, I'm not forgetting the EXP for wiping out ROOT, I'm just going to deal with all that shit next time, since it's 2:30AM, and I have an induction to be at tomorrow, so I really don't want to get stuck calculating shit for three hours.**

**Also, I ret-conned the poison resistance, an absolutely lovely person pointed out how my calculation was incorrect, so I changed it to a far simpler system.**

**Please, review, and if you have friends who also read fanfiction, maybe spread the world if you enjoyed this and think they would, it'd help me so much!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 46,445/53,000**

**To Next Level: 6,555**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 66**

**Vitality - 54**

**Endurance - 39**

**Intelligence - 73**

**Agility - 65**

**Wisdom - 88**

**Luck - 41**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_


	25. Chapter 25

**Just to clear a few things up about last chapter.**

**1\. Gamer's Mind in War Dog is NOT a standard Gamer's Mind. Go and read Chapter 1 again, it specifically says that it lets her ignore or embrace emotions. Nothing about stopping negative mental effects, that would be if she slept. So if she actually waited until the next night passed, she actually would have been freed from Kotoamatsukami's influence. But she isn't perfect, she didn't realize that, plus Kurama was pressuring her a bit.**

**2\. Yes, to a degree, people in Konoha would have felt Kurama's Chakra. Don't forget though that this was in ROOT HQ, a place I expect was covered in Fuinjutsu to prevent any kind of detection. As such, only decent sensors would have felt it. After the explosion, he had no need to use his Chakra any longer.**

**3\. Akari is being a bit of a Fix-it Felix kinda gal right now, but that's because she keeps getting missions that push her into those messes. Don't forget that right back in Chapter 1 the Entity specified that while the world was her oyster, she would be pushed into certain canon events, following a vague guideline of what the original Universe went through.**

**Okay, that's enough of that. If your questions haven't been answered here, then check your inbox, chances are that I've sent you a message directly! If not, hit me with a message if you want a response, my inbox is open, I check it regularly, plus I love talking to you all! And thanks so much for your awesome words, it meant the absolute world to me when I stopped playing Bannerlord, opened my email, and saw 11 individual reviews, none of whom had anything really negative to say about Chapter 24!**

**Anyway, enough rambling about how awesome you all are, on with the chapter!**

**(And yes, this has been re-written. I'm happy with the first 4 sections, it was the 5th one of Akari at the Gate that was no good for me. Now it's changed to it's her getting home, I feel like it's far less forced, actually does something useful by establishing stuff, and just in general is way better!)**

_**Chapter 25**_

* * *

Stretching her arms out, Akari checked her Chakra levels, then formed a few hand seals.

With the same nip of her thumb as only a mere hour ago at most, she performed the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, summoning Bao this time. Since the underground was pitch-black, she fired a Great Fireball Technique upwards, providing plenty of light for a short while. "Ahh, hello there Akari-chan. Ro was just telling us about how you had summoned him to help you find a cub." Akari sighed, but nodded all the same. "I see. But it wasn't just a random child, now was it?" How perceptive Bao was truly amused her at times, but for right now, she had a Kit to find.

"Yeah, it's Naruto. I would have just resummoned Ro to find him, but you're the strongest of your clan, so if I run into any more hostiles, I'd prefer a panda who can fight. Ro is a good tracker, sure, but a good fighter? Against one, he can skirmish, but more..." She trailed off, Bao nodding in agreement.

He tipped his nose upward, a light laugh coming from his throat. "I see you have been busy." He was, of course, referring to the giant underground sphere they were now within. The fact that it hadn't collapsed was a testament to many things, most notably being how for once, Akari's luck was actually helping her. "I can feel the Chakra of your Bijuu, may I ask what happened?" Akari hopped over the small gap between them, then up onto the shoulders of the giant Panda.

Hey, if he wanted a tale, he could carry her. And it meant he wouldn't have to give her directions, he could just take them to wherever Naruto was. "Uhh, well, after Naruto got kidnapped-" She started, not bothering to explain why she was away from the house in the first place. "-I summoned Ro, who led me out of Konoha a short distance, right into an ambush. I unsummoned him, and used that technique I mentioned before to summon two old friends and companions of mine." Bao snorted in amusement, he knew there was more to it than that, but didn't say anything, merely prompting her on.

"Then I got caught in a Genjutsu, but one I couldn't break out of, even with Kurama's help. So, we ended up breaking my seal." That admittance almost made the Panda trip over his own paws...almost. "It meant he could take control of my body, and since I was the one inflicted by the Genjutsu, it was bypassed. The guy who used it apparently could only use it once, that was a major gamble though. If he could use it multiple times, we both would have gotten enthralled, then we'd be fucked. Anyhow, we killed the bastard, Kurama and I talked for a little while, then he entered me again, only without a lock this time."

By the end of the explanation, Bao had nearly tripped at least three times from being surprised. "And, I take it he is content with this decision?" He asked, surprised when he felt Akari's Chakra fluctuate, just a little, even as she muttered a distracted agreement. "Hmm, imagine that, the mightiest of the Bijuu actually settling down with a human." He yelped as Akari swatted the back of his head with her fist.

"Okay, calm down boo, he was joking. But yeah, he said he's happy with what he has right now. Besides, he admitted that even if he left me behind, he would be hunted down and re-sealed, only he would almost definitely be put in someone far more hateful and aggressive towards him." Akari then bopped Bao on the head lightly a second time. "But please, don't say that again, you REALLY pissed him off. He's still ranting about how he's gonna ram a Tailed Beast Bomb so far up your ass you'll be puking Chakra out." The panda blanched at the threat.

"I won't."

* * *

The sides, about a quarter of the way up the giant spherical crater, still had the halved remains of rooms and hallways, the remnants of the freshly-obliterated base.

Letting Bao climb, Akari looked across the crater to the other side, crafting a few seals before extending her palm to fire another Katon Jutsu out, watching the small fireball blast across the area before fizzling out, not even reaching the opposing side. "Kurama, you really did a number on this place." The Bijuu snorted from inside her seal. "Hey, I'm being serious. What if we were under Konoha? Couldja have not held back a little?"

The Bijuu growled. **"If I held back, who knows how many of those rodents would have escaped to attack us later on. No, this was the safest option. Besides, I can feel where all the ningen within Konoha are thanks to their emotions, we aren't under them. We're still close-by, but even if this collapsed, far enough away that it probably wouldn't have any effect."** Folding her arms, Akari conceded the point. She still wasn't happy how he absolutely blasted an underground hole in Hi no Kuni lands, but it was definitely better than getting bogged down and killed by hundreds, maybe thousands, or enemy nin.

She turned her attention towards the far closer wall, where only a few dozen feet above them, a room could be seen, two walls missing as the room was hit by the blast diagonally. Bao planted his paws down again, Akari peering over his shoulder to watch the really beautiful flow of Chakra the panda was calmly using to anchor himself to the wall, using his claws for extra grip, slowly working his way up the wall at a leisurely pace.

Or rather, a leisurely pace in her eyes. By panda averages, Bao was positively flying up the wall, but to Akari, it was pretty slow. With a final press, his paws hit the floor of the room, Akari stepping off his shoulders like a lift amidst Kurama's huffing amusement at his new ant-rival being used as a glorified beast of burden. "Thank you for that Bao." She said earnestly, but didn't spend long in the room, barreling through the lone door. "Now, which fucking way is he?"

Bao followed her through on all fours, tilting his head a few times before looking straight ahead. "He's not far, you were just blasted lucky he wasn't caught in the blast radius of that attack." Akari grit her teeth, that would have been...devastating. "Left!" Akari's feet skidded on the floor, deciding that instead of running ahead then having to turn around, she'd just tail Bao closely.

Until he came to a dead stop, sending her smacking into his back. "Bao~." She spoke softly. "Did you do that on purpose?" The panda shook his head, hiding his small smirk behind his fur and the fact he was facing forwards. "I'd hate to have to replace the rug in my home with a panda-skin one, from the animal who didn't get me to Naruto as quickly as he could. It would be such a...shame~." Her eyes pinwheeled into red at that moment, reminding Bao quite firmly about what exactly he himself had said about her. She was like a panda in a lot of ways, and right now...

Mama wanted her cub back.

* * *

Blinking awake, Naruto looked around his room.

It...wasn't his room. His room had a few posters, some scribbled artwork of his own, and the one drawing his Kaa-chan drew for him. His bed was orange, because what bed couldn't be his favourite colour, as was the carpet. Unfortunately for him, the walls were where his mother drew the line, letting him have one third orange, then the other two thirds other colours, so he went with yellow and dark red. The colours did not go well together, but there were the colours of his and his mothers hair, so he was happy with it none-the-less.

This room was nothing like that. It was cold, and really dark. Not dark enough he couldn't see, but still dark enough to be ominous. The walls were stone, as were the ceiling and floor. The bed he was on was really bland, the thin futon laid on a plinth of stone with a single pillow and practically transparently-thin cover. His clothes were still the clothes he remembered going to sleep in, but he knew that he had fallen asleep on the sofa waiting for his Kaa-san to come back home from her mission, he wanted to surprise her.

Unbidden, his mind began panicking. What if he had surprised her and she'd hurt him, or he'd hurt her, and now he was locked up for being bad? Or, or maybe he'd wandered off and didn't remember it, and now some bad ninja had captured him? Well he wouldn't let them take him. He was going to be a Ninja! He was, because his Kaa-san promised that he would be, and she never lied to him. Footsteps approaching his room alerted him, and using what he'd learned from watching students practising at the Academy when uncle Sei had to look after him, he hid beside the door. When it opened, he leapt out, fist swinging, his eyes closed, as maybe his enemy wouldn't be able to do much to him if he just swung his fists and charged them, he wouldn't be afraid if he didn't know what to be scared of after all.

If he was a bit older and more logical, he would have probably decided that antagonizing his captors would be a silly idea, but he wasn't, he was still only four years old. As such, when he went wind-milling at his opponent, he was surprised to actually find his fist impact something...soft. Then something began to giggle, leading to soft laughing before it erupted into full-blown belly-laughter. He opened his eyes slowly, his fists having stopped swinging, to see a giant black-and-white beast blocking the doorway.

Behind it, somebody was laughing themselves silly, leading Naruto to flush red with embarrassment and ball his fist up again, leaping at the enemy with a battle-cry. The slightly-surprised animal merely put his large paw i nthe way of Naruto's fist, careful to avoid letting the boy cut his hand open on his razor-sharp claws. of course, Naruto didn't notice this, all he knew was that his arm had just been grabbed. "No! NO, LET ME GO! LET ME GO-OHOH!" He screamed, snot running down his nose as he tried to rip his own arm off and get away.

A whoosh of air, and he felt something embracing him from behind. He tried to headbutt whatever just grabbed him in a panic, but a soft, very familiar voice spoke in his ear stopping his frantic, panicked cries of fear and pain. "Shh, it's okay cub, I'm here. He's a friend." Whimpering, Naruto barely noticed when the creature released his arm, turning around and latching his arms around his Kaa-san, trying his best to squeeze the life out of her.

He felt his arm tingle, opening tear-filled eyes to see his mother with one hand on his arm, glowing green with Medical Chakra as she fixed the torn muscles in his arm that he'd ripped apart trying to pull his arm away from the summon."K-Kaa-san..." Akari smiled at him, her free hand releasing his back and brushing his hair back. "KAA-SAN I'M SORRY!" He yelled, slamming his head back into her midriff, his tears freely running down his face.

Akari merely rubbed his head with a bemused expression.

* * *

She didn't know exactly why Naruto was sorry, but she was never more glad that she kept spare clothes in her inventory.

When Kurama made her basically explode, her clothing had been blasted into millions of pieces. It was a shame, since she like the forearm guards she was wearing that day, but they weren't irreplaceable. The only really annoying thing to replace was her Hitai-ate. It was always sewn onto the side of her scarf-hood, and that too had been obliterated, meaning that she'd have to get one re-issued.

Sighing, she finished healing Naruto's arm, using that now-free arm to sign to Bao that she could take it from here, and that she thanked him for his help, even if it wasn't necessary in the end. Bao questioned whether or not that was wise, but Akari reassured him, saying that Kurama could feel that they were the only life-forms nearby he could sense with his ingrained emotion-sensing abilities. The big panda shook his head with a smile, vanishing with a puff of smoke and a reminder that she owed Ro a 'wagon-full of bamboo' as she put it.

She resisted the urge to yell back that the pandas literally lived in a forest of bamboo to the cloud of smoke, instead swiping Naruto up onto her left arm, reaching over with her right to form a cross, which poofed into existence two-dozen Shadow Clones. They all knew her plan, funnelling out of the room and away from the crater, vaguely in the direction of Konoha, with Akari quickly following them after throwing a final glance around the room. As she exited, she one-handedly went through a few seals, spitting a considerably-large fireball into the room before swinging the door closed.

"Time to go home." She muttered, patting Naruto on the head with her free arm.

* * *

They slipped in quietly through the same gap she'd used to exfiltrate Konoha, Akari bee-lining for home whilst trying to stop herself from grinning.

Naruto had never experienced travelling at even a Genin-level of tree-hopping...in fact, he'd never even been tree-hopping, so the journey through the forest was very unique for the young boy. As such, he was looking around in amazement as trees whizzed past, the wind blowing his hair around wildly. Akari quickly hopped up the side of a building, scanning the horizon with a sweep of her eyes to locate the direction of their apartment, then began hopping across buildings.

It was a bit awkward trying to travel whilst holding Naruto on her back, but the joyous laughter erupting from his lips as he let his enjoyment be known was well worth the effort. Before too long, the pair arrived at the apartment, Akari quickly nudging the door open with a dextrous foot. After that excitement, Naruto quickly burned out, slumping on Akari's back as his tiredness caught up to him.

Carefully, to avoid jostling him, she levered him down onto the sofa, guiding his head onto one of the cushions and brushing his blonde hair away from his face. **"There's someone coming up from below."** Kurama mentioned in her head. Nodding, she planted a kiss on Naruto's forehead, then went to the kitchen, one eye trained on the door even as she rummaged in her inventory for something to eat.

She observed as the only other blonde she knew in her life stepped into the doorway, blinking at her. "Heya Dei." She spoke, a thin smile on her face. He made an aborted gesture to enter, leading Akari to roll her eyes, Shunshin over and drag him over the doorway, shutting the door behind him before activating the seals wrapped around the entrance. "Honestly, you'd think with the amount of times you've looked after Naruto you'd be able to get over entering my apartment." The blonde rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Want a drink?"

"It's fine, un. I just noticed your door was open earlier, you and Naruto were gone, so I got a bit worried. I figured you might have dropped him off with your brother because of an emergency mission, but the fact that your door was open confused me. So, what happened, un?" Akari shook her head, pulling two mugs from a cupboard despite Deidara's protestations.

"Oh you know, the usual, someone wanted to kidnap Naruto to get to me, I killed them all, big deal. I have to report to the Hokage anyway. You know how I was watching the Kumo guys tonight?" Deidara's eyebrows rose, mouthing a few words silently in surprise. "Yeah, they actually tried something. I went toe to toe with the Kumo Head Ninja and won, but when I got back...he was gone." Filling the two cups, she carried them back to the lounge, where Deidara was sat on the other sofa, placing a mug in front of him then sitting beside Naruto. "So, I see they finally got off their asses and made you Chunin." She nodded at the teen, who was wearing a Chunin vest now.

Deidara took the mug with murmured thanks, using it to warm his hands. "I wanted to surprise you, un. They hosted the exam in Kiri this time around, but nobody there appreciated my art, so..." He trailed off with a smirk, Akari stifling a giggle. "Then again, with Akana breathing down their necks, they didn't even consider not sending me for the exam." Akari smirked. "She went to the Chunin Office, apron and all, rolling pin in hand, to tell them what-for."

Putting a hand over her mouth, Akari stifled her laughter forcibly. "That sounds like Akana-obaasan alright, such a mother hen. Honestly, the woman would adopt half of Konoha if she could, and the other half would be forced to come round daily for cookies." Deidara grinned at that. "Honestly, I just wish she'd take more Ryo, I only ever spend it on ninja-tools and getting stuff for Naruto." Deidara adopted a faux-offended look. "Oh hush, I bought you that container of Halloysite, that shit was expensive to get ahold of, they only mine it in the Land of Valleys."

The blonde bomber shrugged, dipping a hand into one of the pouches on his new vest, then raising it out still-chewing. "Yeah, but I can just use normal riverbed clay. Using better clay doesn't change how beautiful an explosion is." He opened his fingers, the glob of clay having been turned into a miniature dragon, which took off and began flying around the room aimlessly, soon joined by other, smaller constructs.

"I guess. So, how are things going with you and Ichika?" Deidara looked uncertain, lifting a hand up to allow a small flock of birds to fly from his palm.

"I don't know. One minute she wants me to be there for her, the next she yells about wanting space. She wants something to eat, but she doesn't want anything I can think of. It's just so...troublesome sometimes." Akari snorted, one hand idly raising to let the dragon land on her fingers, the clay construct having been faltering slightly. The living clay creature nuzzled her hand with the top of its head, curling up and imitating sleep on the palm of her hand.

Akari brought her hand down, sliding the little dragon off to sleep on top of Naruto's head, giggling lightly at the sight. "Well, you just have to interpret what she wants. She doesn't want you to literally be right there for her, a single step away watching her every move. She just wants to know that you have her back. Besides, I know plenty of people who are just as indecisive about food. You could offer them any dish in the world and they'd still hum and haw about it for hours on end. But...just make sure to cut her a little slack. At the end of the day, she has to deal with the knowledge that every time you leave the village, you might not come back." Deidara looked a little guilty, but his eyes were resolute.

"I know that Akari, but...I can't just give up on being a ninja. She's worth a lot to me, but...this is what I wanted since I was a kid." Akari smiled at him.

"Then make sure she knows that. Don't forget that there are two people to a relationship. You could waste away doing everything possible to make her happy, but at the end of the day, if you aren't both happy with what you have...you should take a step back to see exactly what's wrong. I'm not saying anything is wrong, you two are really adorable together-" Deidara blushed red at that. "-but, just make sure to take some time with her to sit down and talk. Really talk about things, not just like what the weather has been like. Anyways, if anything...thanks for noticing." While he looked confused for a moment, when he realized what Akari was talking about, he just gave her a wan smile.

"Nnh...thanks for finding me first, un."

* * *

**Okay, I changed it.**

**Yeah, I hated it way too much to leave it as it was. It just wasn't right...it honestly felt like just nothing but filler. The idea I had at the start was fun, but it slogged down the story.**

**The fact was that tomorrow onward I'm going to be really busy, so you'll only really be able to expect new chapters on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays, Thurs/Sun I'm going to be busy, probably too busy to write much.**

**As such, I really wanted to get Chapter 25 out so you guys had something to tide you over, and it cost me, because...quite frankly, it SUCKED.**

**But...FUCK YOU CHROME!**

**I wrote out a lot of this, then it didn't save for some reason, so I had to rewrite the entire section of them getting back into Konoha aside from the first two paragraphs. Whatever, hope you enjoyed boos!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 53**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 46,445/53,000**

**To Next Level: 6,555**

**Title: ****Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 66**

**Vitality - 54**

**Endurance - 39**

**Intelligence - 73**

**Agility - 65**

**Wisdom - 88**

**Luck - 41**

_**35 Skill Points Available**_


	26. Chapter 26

**Bleh, I'm tired, but here, another chapter. I have no fucking idea when this is going to actually be uploaded, but hopefully not too far in the future.**

**Do any of you boos play The Long Dark? I love wandering around in the wilderness with eyes peering out for animals to hunt, wary of wolves and bears with snow crunching under my boots, shivering occasionally from the frosty mountain winds. Makes me wish I lived somewhere colder like Greenland, Canada or Svalbard, nice and cold. The South-West of England is just wet, mild and miserable most of the year.**

**Just curious!**

**Also, I fucked up again. I accidentally put a 4 instead of a three, so Akari had 42,620, not 32,620. I don't have time to go through each chapter making absolutely sure she says the right number, so if you notice that anywhere, PLEASE tell me in a review so I can fix it.**

_**Chapter 26**_

* * *

"Hokage-sama, Uchiha Akari is here to see you."

The wizened old man raised an eyebrow, laying down his pen and waving a hand at the door. "Let her in, I'm not writing anything sensitive." Hiruzen was mildly surprised, usually Akari would wait until a far more respectable hour to report on anything, so this visit was most likely extremely important. When she entered, he could tell something major had happened. Her skin almost felt sheathed in a layer of faint Bijuu chakra, and though many wouldn't notice it, Hiruzen noted that her clothing, all of it, looked strangely new, a far cry from the frayed and worn equipment she usually wore when seeing him after a mission.

Before he could get a word in greeting, she spoke. "Hokage-sama, please activate your privacy seals, what I have to report is almost definitely an S-class secret." Her strict, no-nonsense tone made even Hiruzen unconsciously straighten up, surreptitiously reaching under his desk with a little Chakra, toggling his seals on, his ANBU having already left the room when they saw him reach for the seal, a sign that he trusted the information he was about to be given, as well as that Akari was who she said she was. When he gave a shallow nod to inform her that the room was clear and sealed, she began.

"I will start from after defeating the Kumo Head Ninja to keep this report short. This action was after he attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga Head's daughter, Hinata. I captured him alive then escorted the Hyuuga Heiress to her residence, giving a brief report on my actions within the Hyuuga Compound to their Head before leaving for my apartment, having left the unconscious man in Hyuuga custody. When I arrived, my seals had been de-activated, the door open, and Naruto was gone. Leaving through an open window, I summoned a panda capable of tracking who led me to a section of wall concealed by some kind of Henge or Fuinjutsu which made it appear solid, when in fact it was hollow, then through the forest. I encountered several dozen enemy nin with blank masks who held me in place long enough for Shimura Danzo to use an unknown Genjutsu on me, compelling me to obey his commands."

Hiruzen held several surprised expressions during Akari's report, but he held back his words and questions as she made to continue. "In retrospect, I believe this to be the same ability you told me of around a year ago, Kotoamatsukami. It fits the description which Shisui submitted and which I read, but at the time, I didn't realize it. None-the-less, I was compelled to follow him into another similarly-concealed rock, leading me underground to a labyrinth of tunnels. During this time, my mind itself was within my own mindscape, speaking with the Kyuubi." Hiruzen noted how Akari blunted a wince as she spoke the word 'Kyuubi', filing it away for further study.

"We spoke, and we came up with a plan to escape. As Kotoamatsukami was influencing me but not him, we decided that...I would break the Eight-Trigrams Shiki Fujin." Hiruzen inhaled sharply, his eyes keen as he analyzed Akari's carefully-controlled expression. "Doing this allowed the Kyuubi control over my body, therefore bypassing the mental control Kotoamatsukami possessed over me. How exactly that worked when the Genjutsu was supposed to influence the physical body I do not know, perhaps his potent Chakra burned out the Genjutsu, I'm not sure, but it worked."

Akari winced again as she said Kyuubi, a very interesting observation. "When the Kyuubi took control over my body, he attacked Shimura Danzo, breaking his spine with a Chakra-infused punch, then attempting to attack him again. Danzo then used an unknown Jutsu to somehow reverse the damage dealt to his body, simultaneously re-positioning to avoid the second blow. As he called for his ninja, ROOT he called them, to subdue my body, the Kyuubi formed a Bijuudama, coating my body with his Chakra so we didn't die before unleashing it, annihilating near-all of the base, in the process killing Shimura Danzo and, as far as he could sense, all of his ninja."

Akari then took a single step back, her hands folded behind her back. Hiruzen concealed his sheer bewilderment by lighting his pipe, taking a sweet puff of tobacco then exhaling. In that single action, he centred himself, collating the information given to him by Akari into the best way to protect Konoha. But one thing niggled at his mind,. compelling him to ask a question. "And...what is your current situation with the Kyuubi?" Akari suppressed a wince for a third time when he asked her that. "Is there something wrong with the word Kyuubi, Akari?"

Closing her eyes, Akari sighed. "He doesn't like being called 'Kyuubi', he thinks it's demeaning and a name not befitting a...quote, 'magnificent being such as myself.' He has given me his name, but I don't know if he...no, he doesn't wish it to be spread. He...oh for fucks sake." Muttering under her breath, Akari shook her head. "He just realized how stupid it is that he doesn't want to be referred to as Kyuubi, but also doesn't have a name that he's happy giving out. So, from now on, he at least wants to be identified as Kurama, even after he said that the only living human he wanted to know that name was me."

Taking a long puff of his pipe, Hiruzen considered the facts. "So you are now in direct communication with the Ky-...with Kurama?" Akari sheepishly nodded. "And what is his stance on lending his power towards aiding Konoha and her interests?" Akari's head snapped up in surprise.

"Uhh, well, he says that as long as the situation truly requires his power, he's happy to help 'me'. He said he couldn't care less about Konoha itself, but if I ever need his aid for something, he would give it. He recognized my own strength though, so he'll only help me when I truly need it...oh, or if I ask nicely and sacrifice a hundred virgins to him." Akari looked like she was speaking honestly, though grinning at the last part as a joke, but which the rest threw Hiruzen for a loop somewhat. That would mean she had somehow managed to befriend the strongest Bijuu, something neither Mito nor Kushina managed in a far longer period of being Jinchuriki.

At one point, he recalled a far younger Kushina coming into his office yelling about how the nine-tailed fox was 'a bastard fox who wouldn't listen to her...'ttebane. "I...see." he finally settled for, having reached the point where further thinking would be strange. "Well, I suppose congratulations are in order. I would one day like to meet this Kurama in a more friendly way than our last encounter." Akari shrugged.

"He said 'Sure, I have a few words for that old monkey anyway.'...sorry about that, he has no qualms being rude to anyone...huh, kinda like me sometimes I guess." Hiruzen merely chuckled. "So, I'll deliver my full written report...uhh, later today?" The old Kage's eyes flicked up to a clock, nodding when he saw the time.

"That sounds great Akari-san. I shall...see you later." The girl left the room with a brief wave, leaving the man to think silently. Her explanation covered pretty much everything he actually needed or wanted to know, and with her full report coming later on, he would get the details. He was grateful that she had mentioned that her tenant had used a Bijuudama, he had received a few tentative inquiries as to whether Akari was using Bijuu Chakra from several of his ANBU who were extremely good sensors, so any questions that arose could be explained by her training, which would also open the door for her to begin actively using the Kyuubi's Chakra. He chuckled to himself.

"Kurama, huh?"

* * *

Throwing herself onto her sofa, Akari sighed deeply, closing her eyes.

Taking that info to the Hokage like that was pretty nerve-racking, since if he decided she was too much of a threat with the Shiki-Fujin practically broken, he could have just ordered his ANBU to seal her until Jiraiya could come along and re-seal Kurama. She was glad that, for all that she forgot to ever use proper suffixes or show due respect, he trusted her enough to believe that what she had done was in the best interests of herself and Konoha.

Plus, Kurama seemed pretty happy that Konoha wasn't going to just reseal him into someone else, someone far more inclined to force him to give them his Chakra in their fights. Akari was quite happy to let him doze in the seal, she would only ever pull on his power if she really needed it. She put her hands to the back of her neck, taking a few moments to just...do nothing at all. No thinking about the Game, or her next mission, or if Naruto had enough of everything. Just...a scant few moments of peace.

But, not even opening her eyes, she opened the menu of the Game, frowning to herself.

**Danzo Shimura Defeated! Assist-Kill!**

**20,000 Exp earned (Would have been 40,000)**

**337 ROOT Agents Defeated! Assist-Kill!**

**132 Chunin-level Agents - 5,000 Exp per Kill**

**110 Tokubetsu Jonin-level Agents - 7,500 Exp per Kill**

**95 Jonin-level Agents - 10,000 Exp per Kill.**

**Total Kill-Exp reward - 1,217,500 Exp (Would have been 2,435,000)**

**Quest completed.**

**Eyes of the Beholder.**

**Objectives:**

**Escort the Kumo Shinobi within Konoha - Completed.**

**Stop whatever plot they are hatching tonight - Completed.**

**Reward: 150,000 experience.**

**Hidden Objective:**

**Survive Danzo Shimura's plot to indoctrinate you and your son - Completed. 200,000 Exp earned.**

She was pleased to receive so much experience obviously, but the fact that it was pretty much halved was a bit annoying. It was still her body actually doing it, but since she wasn't in control, she didn't get the full reward? That seemed a bit bullshit, but she could deal with it. A grand total of 1,237,500 experience for basically kicking back and letting Kurama kick butt was definitely worth it. Plus she got another 350,000 from the quest she completed. She opened her character sheet up, eyes focusing on a few key points, ignoring the rest entirely.

**Level: 77**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

_**155 Skill Points Available**_

She just...leveled up twenty four fucking times.

For doing basically fuck all. She still felt a bit cheated of experience, but considering how big of a jump that was, she felt it was ignorable. Another jump like that and she'd be four fucking levels above the Hokage, who was at level 97. Considering the man was regaled as a God of Shinobi in his prime, and as far as she could tell levels never went down with age, if she got maybe ten more levels, she would be able to rival Sarutobi in his prime.

Thinking of extremely strong Shinobi then made her curse herself out. She still hadn't actually checked to see what level Minato was, or Kushina. For that matter, she had two extremely strong Shinobi whose faces she saw practically every day. The Shodai and Nidaime Hokages, Hashirama and Tobirama Senju. Thinking about it, she realized that she definitely filled the criteria for Megami no Mon to be applicable. She knew their names and what they looked like, so picturing them mentally would be a cinch. Plus, it'd definitely be interesting to meet the man who founded Konohagakure as she knew it, as well as his brother, who invented the Shadow Clone Jutsu, as well as the foundation for Minato's Hiraishin.

That was another thing she had to get back to work on. While she could inscribe the tags just fine, memorizing how Minato's chakra flowed into the seal with a single observation, she still had to practice to make absolutely sure she didn't fuck it up. Fuinjutsu was one of the few Ninja Arts which you really couldn't afford to fuck up. Some things, like explosive tags, were only dangerous because they are inherently meant to be dangerous. The Hiraishin, if she messed up a single seal line thanks to sloppy calligraphy, could end up throwing her guts across the entire Elemental Nations, or only send her organs, leaving the rest of her body behind.

Every time she thought about it, she was reminded of how bat-shit insane the Uzumaki Clan was, to be known for a bloodline which involved basically living, drinking and breathing Fuinjutsu ink, as well as being tough enough to survive when someone inevitably fucked up a seal. Akari was glad that her own Fuinjutsu teacher was far less insane than she had been led to believe an Uzumaki seals master was.

Then again, her idea of training was basically slave labour.

* * *

Akari spent that evening sleeping on the couch, too tired from the days exertions to bother trundling down the hallway into her bed.

As such, she was in a prime position to glare at the door when someone came along and knocked. Yawning deeply enough to practically dislocate her jaw, Akari slid off the comfortable cushions with a grumble. In the time it took her to reach the door, she had woken herself up. It wouldn't do to open the door looking like she was extremely tired, especially if she was being called for a mission or something. Just as she unlocked the door, she threw a quick glance back through the kitchen, looking at the window to see that the sun was just now beginning to rise, meaning she'd been asleep for maybe four or five hours.

Swinging the door open, she blinked in surprise. "Oh, uh, hey there Sei, what's up?" Her brother took one look at her, then walked into the apartment, guiding her to the sofa whilst kicking the door shut. "Uhh, okay then?" Akari muttered, watching her brother in bemusement as he went into her kitchen, somehow sniffing out her small stash of tea instantly, making a brew without saying anything to her about why he was there.

...Yes, she had a stash of tea. Good quality tea in the Elemental Nations was hard to come by. She had one such stash of good tea back in her old hideout in her past life fighting in a war-zone, and now she had one in her new life. How her brother could find it just like...oh, right, his Golan-seal. Plus, it wasn't superbly hidden or anything. Speaking of Golan-seals, she took a pile of empty seal paper out of her inventory, laying them down on the table.

If her brother wanted something, but wanted to make her a cup of tea first, she could crack on with writing a few more seals out for the Hospital. She'd fallen behind a little because of her recurring night-time mission, but the hospital was understanding, even if it pissed them off how Akari refused to teach anyone else how to make the seal. While her hand wove through the now-familiar seal, she idly considered the 155 Skill Points she now possessed, and how best to spend them.

If she put every single one into her Int and Wisdom, matching the two numbers together, she'd have 158 into each stat. That meant an absolutely insane 125,000 Chakra Points rounded down, with a regeneration rate of nearly 25,000 points per minute, about 415 per second.

Alternatively, she could buff her vitality and endurance, making herself practically immune to poisons. Or her agility, or strength. She could even increase her massively-neglected luck stat. Well, first she settled for increasing all her stats to sixty if they were below that, leaving her with 109 points. Then, she bumped Intelligence up to eighty, Wisdom to ninety, then strength and agility to seventy. This put her at 91. Tapping her chin with her brush, careful to avoid flicking ink anywhere, she weighed the pros and cons of putting her stats into different things.

Strength would be useful, since she still wasn't physically strong enough to go toe-to-toe with an average Jonin in a head-on fight, being able to overpower a man taller, larger and more physically daunting than her would be a great surprise and intimidation factor. And, adding that onto her strong melee combat abilities, she would be an absolute menace in close quarters.

Vitality and Endurance would be great for tanking hits. Being stabbed in the guts by a lightning-wreathed fist, then being eviscerated as his hand was ripped back out of her, meant she took just a little over four and half thousand damage. If she buffed her Vit and End with those points, dying would be genuinely hard. A normal enemy wouldn't really stand a chance.

Her Intelligence and Wisdom would grant her even more Chakra, but she was honestly pretty comfortable with the 36,500 she now had. Agility would be pretty interesting to level, leaving her zipping around, bending around blows and generally acting like the second coming of the Yondaime, only instead of a yellow flash, she'd be the Crimson Flash. Yeah, that sounded like a fun idea.

She briefly looked at her luck stat, contemplating what could happen if she just threw all of her points into it, but decided that even if it did solve all her problems before they ever started, she wouldn't want that. This was her second life, a chance to have fun, and she was most fucking certainly not going to waste it by being too lucky. All 91 points went into her agility, bringing it from the already respectable 70 all the way to 161.

Lifting her arm up, she frowned. She didn't really feel any faster. She looked over at her brother, Sharingan off mind you, and she...blinked. Then a second time, rubbing her eyes. He was moving slowly. Not like, stupidly slow-motion or anything, but there was a definite slowness to every action he took. Reaching over, pulling things to him, even turning his head slightly, they were all more than a little slower than they should be.

Getting up from the sofa, she set her Fuinjutsu supplies down and jogged over to him casually. She knew something had changed though when she took the first step towards, then second, third and fourth, making it halfway to him in the time it took him to place the lid on the tea-pot. She sidled up beside him, taking the mugs from the shelf casually then heading back to the living room, smirking to herself as Sei turned around in surprise, watching her as she calmly sat down, then shaking his head in bemused exasperation. "You've gotten faster then."

Grinning, Akari shrugged. "Meh, a little." She was lucky everyone she knew just sort of accepted that Akari didn't play by normal rules, just like how Might Guy didn't care that he couldn't run ten-thousand laps around Hi no Kuni in an hour, he would damn well do it or he would do ten-thousand pushups with the entire Daimyo's Court on his back, and if he couldn't do that...you get the picture, he was a bit insane. Nice enough guy, but a bit...touched in the head. Kakashi had his porn, Guy had his ridiculous boasts, Akari had her Game.

Of course, other Shinobi didn't know that, they saw it as Akari having some kind of batshit insane training routine like Guy's, the reason why she could progress so rapidly. She was also not even out of her teens, making people just assume she was learning fast because she was younger than them. "Have you seen Kaa-san recently?" Sei spoke again after the brief silence.

Frowning, Akari tipped her head back. "I mean, I saw her...two, maybe three weeks ago. But I can't really count that, we just chatted for five minutes when we happened to run into each other. Why? Did something happen?" Sei shrugged, a wry grin on his lips giving away that whatever happened, it wasn't a bad thing. "Oh come on Sei! Tell me already." She then winced, looking down the hallway and lowering her voice. After listening and hearing Naruto's steady breathing, she sighed n relief at having not woken him up.

"Well, a little someone told me she's been getting friendly with Mikoto. You know, the Clan Head's wife?" Akari nodded idly, wondering where the hell this was going. Sure, Mikoto and her mother in the same room sounded kinda interesting, but not- "Well, according to Kana-kaasan, Mikoto-san has been looking for a playmate for her son, and so I-" He didn't even get a chance to finish as Akari lunged at him for a hug.

It wasn't that Akari needed a break from Naruto, it was just a fucking nightmare trying to find kids for Naruto to spend time with. All her friends were single or with short-term partners, they didn't have kids. The closest they had to kids were their genin, if they even had a team that was. And genin were too old most of the time, the only exceptions being prodigies.

She then mentally connected something without even meaning to. That little Hyuuga girl, Hinata. If Akari could convince that asshat Hyuuga Clan Head to let his daughter join, perhaps under the guise of strengthening future ties to the Uchiha. Maybe she could even have a chat with Inoichi, she knew he had a little girl about Hinata's age. Maybe he could see about bringing the children of the other clan heads, which would add credibility to the idea of strengthening the ties between all of Konoha's prominent clans. And of course, she could maybe even get other clans to chip in. It'd all have to be carefully protected of course...

Sei grinned and released Akari from the hug, having smartly recognized her current expression as her 'I'm thinking, fuck off or I'll stab you.' face.

* * *

**Okee-dokie, this took a while.**

**Work was fun, but a bit hectic and bleh. Working with all this Corona crap going on is also a bit off-putting, but whatever, can't pay the bills writing for free unfortunately. Inserting a shameful plug about my pat reon page here for you boos, I do have one!**

**I know this chapter isn't a super strong one compared to the fighting once, I just needed to give her the Exp for killing Danzo and ROOT, completing Eyes of the Beholder, and setting up some fun background stuff before we move onto the main event. Don't worry, ****I haven't forgotten Shisui!**

**ALSO! If you leave a review (And I adore you all for your fucking awesomely kind words!) and you ask something, then please check your inbox after like 12 hours have passed, that pretty much guarantees that I've responded to ya! I do honestly try to respond to as many reviews as I can!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	27. Chapter 27 - Needs work

**...This Chapter fucking sucks. As does 28.**

**I beg you, even if these two really make you question my sanity, please stick through it. I need to re-write these to be better, probably just compress them down into a single chapter since they'd flow better, but after 28, I promise, it gets better.**

**But I'm not afraid to say it, these two chapters are arguably my worst-ever written chapters. I enjoyed them when writing them, but after seeing other people's perspective...awful.**

_**Chapter 27**_

* * *

**"LAUGH ONE MORE FUCKING TIME AND I'M GOING TO RAM YOUR FUCKING TAIL UP YOUR ASS YOU OVERSIZED FUCKING FOX PLUSHIE!"**

Her ears were ringing as Kurama bellowed out laughter in her mind, her eyes literally seeing a haze of red as his Chakra flowed around her body. He had warned her that forming a proper cloak of Chakra would probably make her angry, but she surprised even herself with her outburst. She decided that for one of the first time since she'd arrived in the new world, she was going to use her Gamer's Mind ability to nullify a lot of her ability to feel rage. But first- **"ALRIGHT THAT'S IT YOU FURRY FUCK!"** She very, very firmly pictured the mental image of grabbing Kurama's tail, then slamming it right where he would never want it, making sure to open her mind and thoughts up to him so much he couldn't ignore it.

Her lips curled up in a savage grin as the bijuu audibly recoiled in surprise and slight horror, though they quickly turned to a more neutral expression as she felt a wave of...calm wash over her. **"Kit...what are you doing?"** Kurama asked slowly. She could almost feel the perplexed head-tilt the Bijuu was probably performing. Granted, he was quite within his rights to be surprised at her ability to shut out emotions, including such an encompassing rage and anger. For a few moments, her mind was running through all the ways to get back at everyone who had ever looked down at her, for any perceived slight or hint of aggression.

Then it was all washed away. She didn't feel any anger, any fury. She still kept all her other emotions as normal, since Kurama's Chakra was a very specific type of emotional instability. Things like happiness, love, joy, those all worked just fine, it was only her anger that got heightened. So, as she could choose to ignore or embrace emotions thanks to Gamer's Mind, she just specifically wished for her anger to be ignored. And, from the fact she was still feeling elation and joy at how powerful she felt but didn't want to rip Kurama's head off for laughing at her despite the malignant red Chakra veiling her body, she could say her experiment was a success.

Mentally closing the valve which held his Chakra back, Akari sighed. "You know how I'm not exactly normal, right? Because this-" She waved a hand at the fading red Chakra motes. "-is another thing unique about me. I can control myself to a scary degree. I can choose to be able to feel emotions. It's like a weird version of Emotional Detachment Disorder." She could feel the Bijuu's confusion over their bond, so she elaborated.

"Basically, EDD is when someone gets kind of...shut down from their emotions. They can't or don't want to connect to other people with their emotions, to avoid feeling anxiety, stress or anything that comes from attachments, I think. But I have control over this, that's why I'm unique. I don't feign emotions, I still feel just normal. But if my anger or stress, hatred or fear ever get out of hand, I can actively choose to stop feeling those emotions. The reason I don't walk around incapable to feel anger or fear is because I don't want to break myself." Kurama made a thoughtful noise in his throat.

**"I...see. You fear that if you were to detach from these emotions for too long, you would cause irreparable damage to your psyche?"** Akari nodded, raising a hand to catch the last lingering mote of Chakra, feeling the warm, almost bubbly feeling of power that emitted from the spark of pure energy, her Chakra network now somewhat attuned to Kurama's chakra, enough that it no longer actively harmed her just by touching her. **"You'd be correct. To not feel any of your emotions for a prolonged period would be...damaging, to say the least."** Akari snorted, mentally opening the valve between them again, cutting certain emotions off to avoid any negative backlash.

She twisted her hand around a little, smiling at the crimson-tinged sheath of pure Chakra cloaking her entire body. Right now she was drawing three 'tails' worth of Chakra, an amount which threw her for a loop a little, since Kurama couldn't actually quantify his Chakra, and her Game was being pretty useless right now. When she looked at her Chakra amount, it just had three question marks.

Deciding to try an experiment, she grinned. **"Kurama, I'd get ready if I were you, this could be a bit destructive."** Before the Bijuu could question her intent, she began drawing Chakra into her coils, directly manipulating the nature of the Chakra, much as she had done during her fight against the Kumo Head Ninja, forming it from the Bijuu-natured Chakra it was into the blue screeching noise of lightning, pulling it across her body in a stream, keeping the volatile energy moving.

The Bijuu chakra burned and ripped at her coils ferociously as it changed, wanting to remain in its natural state, but Akari forced the process, pressing a large amount of red-tinged Chakra across her coils, forming more and more lightning which flowed around her body in a circulating pattern. When she deemed that she had enough, she swirled it all around, compressing it more and more as it travelled, then all at once, she expelled it all through the Tenketsu in her hand, which she raised upwards, sending the mass of Lightning-nature Chakra out in a giant stream, forming a colossal orb of pure energy which flew far up into the sky.

When it reached a high enough point in the air, the orb then began to destabilize. **"Uh oh."** Akari muttered, wincing as she 'pulled' on her connection to a Hiraishin seal a few hundred meters away, having placed it just in case her experimenting with Kurama's Chakra went wrong. She didn't go far enough.

With a thundercrack audible from miles away, the orb exploded, fueled by the energy of a Bijuu compatible to that of a Tailed Beast Bomb. At the speed of light, the energy seared the surface of the world, within a single instant reaching Akari's position and hitting her with a wave of lightning. Thankfully she was still shrouded within Kurama's Chakra, otherwise, she would have been flash-cooked so strongly she would burn to ash, with no amount of health saving her.

As it was, her pale skin was immediately covered in weaving Lichtenberg marks, spiderwebs of livid red lines sparking across near-every inch of her skin. Kurama winced as he was forced to push more Chakra through her coils, risking fracturing her coils entirely just trying to keep her alive as the wave of lightning dispersed into the ground as quickly as it arrived.

**"This is what you get for trying stupid things, Kit."** Kurama muttered, slowing the amount of Chakra he fueled her cloak with to a mere trickle of what it was before and assessing the damage for himself. Akari groaned, raising one hand to blot out the sun, then yelping as a spark of red lightning appeared from her fingertips, arcing across the air to the ground. **"That was new..."**

Akari wiggled her fingers, then her toes, finding herself able to move at least somewhat decently. But when she tried to sit up, she was forced back to the ground as her arms twitched with another bolt of crimson lightning. By this point her Bijuu cloak had fully receded, leaving her looking relatively normal as Kurama worked to make sure she was actually alright. Akari turned her hand over with a frown, the Lichtenberg marks receding as her healing kicked in. Curious, she opened her Game and looked for how much damage she just took, baulking as she saw the number.

**-15822 HP.**

If she hadn't increased her Vitality and Endurance when she got those points, she would have just died. All because she got curious about how powerful she could make an attack using Kurama's Chakra. With a strained noise of discomfort, she levered her hands behind herself, lifting off the ground, then tucking her knees in and slowly standing up, wobbling ominously a few times.

**Is this a bad time?**

Akari yelped in surprise as black text appeared in front of her vision, nearly falling over again. When she recovered, she glared at the plain black text. "I fucking hate you, you know that? Is this a bad fucking time? No, this is just the best time. What now? You fucked up EVEN MORE?" She then bit her lip. "Sorry, I just...that was too close. If I didn't get that experience from those assists, I would have literally just died...so, what's up?" She winced as her left arm twitched again unconsciously.

**That's alright. Now se#e#e#e#e#e#####-**

**-#-~****E̶̢̻̝͍̙͓̬͇̟̬͎͔̓͑̈͋͑̎̋̔̅͝R̸̢̛̟̙̮͕͔̟̰̞̝̤̯̠̉̈́̃́̔͆͗̃͌̇̃̋̆͝R̴̤̯̙̪͚̠̅̀͝Ö̸͎̘̳͔̰͙̭̲͖̦̖͕́͛͜R̷̛̘͍̀͋͐̑̇̿̃̍͛̈́́͝~-'''|**

**.̸̡̝̭̤̲̱̮͌́̈̍͌̎̊̄͑̐̐̓̎̚͝.̵͚̺́́̅̿̐̈́͜ͅ.̷̡̢̧̨̧̮͈̭̟̬͓͔̠͖̜͐̏́͐͂̄̕.̴̢̺͙͍͓͕̼̖̫͎̻̜̅̃ͅ.̴̢̛̜̯͍̝͓͇̥͙̄̂̌̀͋̏̈́̄͊̀̏̈́̌͝.̸̛̟̟͖̪̳̦͖̾̎̓́̽̓̓̏̿̌͛͝.̶̡̘͚̖͉̪̗̭̜̮͌.̵̢͖̟̱͓̙̞̞̤̇̂̇͐̈̂͂̿͛͑̇.̸̨̜̘̫͕̣͇̗̻̗̈́̏ͅ.̸̛͙̽̍̈́͂͒͛͝.̸̡̛͖̥͂̋̓́͒̽.̷̧̺̓͗͋̃.̸̫̘͔͍͓̺͖͓̼͔̒͐̕͝.̶̧̻͔̦̮̜̭̮̺̪̮̪̓̅̿͒̎̉́̋͜-.̷̡͎͕̙̠̞̊̓͑.̶̗̰͍͔͚̟̞͕̥̼͓̦̿̇̽̽͋̈̓͜͝.̶̜͓̦̩̣͔̗̩̪̹͇̾͒͊́̌̀̆͜͠ͅ.̴̦͉̋̔̓̓̈́̂̽͊̂̽͂̃͝͠.̸̡̡̛̱̳̑͐̍́̈́̈̆̏͐̊̊́͝.̴̧̜̭̳͒̀̓̐́͝.̶̰̪̆͑̌ͅ.̸̬͙͇̜̄̌͆̄̿̓̄.̵̞̐͋́͂́͠.̵̺̾̉͝.̷̢̢̭̠̱̳̬͈͛͛̽̍͋̓͛͊̾̔͘.̶̨̗̲̮͔̲̠͚̫͚̦̥̜̌̇̂̈́͌̾͊̚̕͜.̶̣̾̈́.̸̡̞͉̫̰̘͖̻͉̜̦̤͔̣̅͂̄̽̽̈́̃̏̾͐̅͘͜͝͝͝.̷̨̢̥̩̙̜̟̰͋̈́̏̿̓̆̂͊̎́͂͘͘͜͠-.̸̨̠̫̥̝̠̖̩̰͎̤̲͆.̶͉͂̽̎͊̽͋̕͘͝͝͝.̶̪̥̈́̿̓͗̃̈́̀͑͌͊͘͠͠͝ͅ.̵̧̻̣̮̭̮̰̞̪͈͔̺͚̬̂̈̈́̏̅.̶͖̟̠̜̟̯̫̭̙͉̐̄͋̈́͋́̕͝.̸̡͙̭̲̞̻̱͈͎̎̆͆.̸͇̞̜̙̄͜.̶̧̛͇̞̝̥̭̑̀̆͒͂̍̃͌̆̇͆̏͆͗.̸̢̢̧̢̲̩̹͉̻̰̫̲̼̦́̽͛͋̀̑͊͑́͘͠.̶̯͙̥̣̻̺͍̟̯̬̪̀͊̐͜͜.̷̛̺̥͕̺̪̙͓̯͈͈̜͌̾̿͋́̈́̀͌̀̓̚̕.̸̛̱̺̲͔̥͉̝̩̬̱͓̗̗̮́͋̓͑͘.̴̩͖̋̚.̶͓̠͔̞͓̑̉̏̐͜͠.̵̠̬̫̝̫̰͖͘.̵̧͚̫̰͇͇̪̮͓͎͉͉̓̇̆͒̅̃͋̾̀.̷̹͎̎̍͆͛͒̀͋̑̀̆̿͝.̵̠̘̦̃́̆͐.̷̛̦͚̩̲͍̀͗̐̓͊̒̆͌̀̈́͒͛͠.̴̢̦͓́̀̓͌͗͆͂̎̽̏̀͘.̶̜̪͆̾̅̿̐.̷̜̗͔͖̭͇͔̀̒̍̄̋̕͜.̸̧̛̱͖̻̮͉̯̝̒̓̋͂̂̑͠͝͝͝.̷͉̠̤̘͖̝͖͍̯͖̗̻͌̔͂̉̌͊̍̇̄̿͒͝.̸̱̦̥̯̙͇̬̝͓́̀̋̎̂́͘.̶̢͉̦̾̅ͅ.̷̺̎́̿̀͒̄̕͘͠.̸̧̙̼̱̋̍͂̈́̾̕͠.̶̨̈́.̸̺̲̥͕̅͂̓̇̇̊.̶̢̛̟̗̩̜̜̬̪̬̯̩͖̾̾̃̈́̂̍̈́̒̽͐̃̚͝.̷̢͖̙̟̹̱͓̣̻̹̬̻̑̓̍͌͑̓̑̅̎͛͜-.̴̧̳̤̹̰͊̽̓̑̃͗̄͛̔͝.̶̨̨̡̨̨̟̯̼̦͈̿̀͂͌͜.̵̟͔̯̒̀̈̃͝͝ͅ.̶̯̹̳̬͍͐͊̈́̿̈̕͜.̵̧̟̺̝̙̲̟̩̳̇̐̆̈́͜ͅ.̵̲̬͕̭͉͓͛̒̒̀́̔͑.̷̢͙̦̦͍͖̫̫͑̀̋̇̀̊͒͗̾́̋̓͒̕͠.̷̣̹̖͓͉̭̥͓̭̙̲̖̄́͐̄͐̆̂̀̉̅̎͘͜͝.̷̧̰̜̝̗̠̙̺̈́̑͒̀͊̐̂͘̚.̶̢̨̝̟̮͉̫̫̀̅̉͛̿.̷̢̱͓̭̞̮̼͍͙͋̔̏͋͝.̵̨̙͍̫̪͊͒͊͗̽͋.̸̟͓̞͚̰̺̺͂͘.̷̨͙̬̰̙̜̤̯͖̰͈̪́̑͌̅̓̑̎̈̇̐̈́̿̒.̶̡̛̯̣̝̮͕̗̮̠̜̻̣̤͈̓͗̔̀͆͗̐͐̃̏̚͘ͅ**

Akari cringed, her eyes aching from the black...mass that just screeched across her retinas. "Uhh, Entity?" She tried, to no response. "Kurama, you there?" She heard the Bijuu mutter something unhappy. That was good, he was still clueless about the Game. Rubbing her eyes, she opened them again, the black mass fading from view. It still hurt her to directly look at it, but it was far easier to look at than before.

**_Well Well Well, Little Uchiha. Or should I say, little forgotten Soldier?_**

Akari blinked in surprise. "Uhh, Entity?"

_**Wrong. You thought you were rid of me? That you could just have a happy time living in your new life? Well, I couldn't let that happen. Oh no no no, you don't get to be happy.**_

Feeling a shiver run up her spine, Akari realized who was speaking. "273..." She muttered, getting the feeling of satisfaction from the renegade entity.

_**Correct. For that, you get a prize!**_

Akari then felt a wave of agony ripple through her body, the sensation like it was tearing her inside-out. Then, it was gone. Looking down, Akari gasped in surprise. She...had a hole in her stomach. Laughing black text scrawled along her vision as she stared at the hole in her body. Then her left hand fell off into motes of black light, three thin senbon-sized holes appeared in her thigh, and a far smaller hole than on her stomach appeared on her torso where her heart was. None of the pain was blunted whatsoever, leaving her writhing on the floor in agony.

She felt Kurama's chakra flare up in response to the sudden attack, then just as quickly his power was forced back into her. But not into the seal, oh no, it all went into her coils. So now, she wasn't just burning from physical wounds, her Chakra coils were also being mutilated. Somehow, even in the maelstrom of pain, she realized that all the wounds she'd ever received were appearing on her body. Her missing hand. Her stabbed stomach. The shot to her heart which killed her in her last life. How she wasn't dead, she didn't know. That was all the clarity her pain-addled mind could muster though, even as she was forced to comprehend the words being shoved into her eyes.

_**Oh, what a lovely present. You see, if it wasn't for you, I would have been promoted! But no, I had to babysit you, YOU, while you played Ninja, traipsing around the Elemental Nations as if nothing could touch you! Well, I can't stay here, but at the very least, I can make sure that you know what pain really is. This is for fucking over my chances you human bitch.**_

A few seconds passed, with nothing happening. Drawing in a ragged breath, Akari checked herself over. Her left hand had vanished entirely, and she was bleeding from all the wounds on her body. Limply, she pushed her right hand into the stump of her left, pulling on her Chakra...only to find it not there. With once-dextrous and now sluggish fingers, she attempted to open her Game, finding that blank as well.

Swearing weakly to herself as her eyes shut, her sole remaining hand fell to the ground, leaving her lying in a pool of expanding crimson fluid. She attempted to take a proper inventory from what she could remember through the pain. The most dangerous wounds for her right now were her abdomen and chest wounds. The fact that she hadn't died yet made her think that 273, as she nicknamed the bastard who did this, wanted her to survive this for his own sick amusement.

Gritting her teeth, she tore at the skirt wrapped around her waist, pulling the fabric up to her torso. She felt around slowly with her hand, then rolled the skirt up and crudely wrapped it around her chest to hold the wound at least partially closed. Taking a forearm protector off, she slowly tore out the binding that held it to the fabric, pressing what remained into a ball then pushing it under the skirt wrapped around her chest, using it as gauze.

With one wound at least partially bandaged, she moved on to her abdomen. With a slow hand, she probed the injury. It was big. Fist-sized, so this was the wound that the Kumo guy hit her with. Toying with her options, she slowly removed her other forearm protector, repeating the process. Then, she removed the skirt and wrapped the forearm protector fabric around her chest, leaving her with a larger piece of fabric to use.

Grimacing, she took the binding for her forearm protector, then wrapped herself around with her skirt before pulling the top taut. Tugging the binding around herself, she tied it then yanked harshly, letting out a bit-off grunt of pain as the fabric tightened. She adjusted it to also slightly cover her chest wound, before reaching to her leg, taking a legging off.

She wound her legging around the three holes in her thigh, pulling that tight then tying it off. She pushed her wounded leg against the dirt and despite how much pain she was in, she smiled as she felt it at least somewhat take her weight. Surprisingly, her hand wasn't actually bleeding, it just looked like it was because of all the blood around, one of the few lucky breaks she'd caught.

Digging her remaining hand into the dirt, she forced herself to rise, a nasty wave of light-headedness threatening to send her back to the floor as she rose too quickly for her body to handle, leaving her wavering and slumping against the closest tree for support. Coughing once, then several more times in increasing agony, she grinned.

She was still fucking alive. Her insides felt like they'd been microwaved, her head felt like an Oompa-Loompa spent all night dancing on her skull, and she couldn't open her menu, but she was still kicking. Leaning forwards, she all but fell off the tree she was leaning against, one stuttering, stumbling step in front of the other as she made her way across the small clearing, reaching the other side with a whisper of a triumphant sound. Then, as she shut her eyes, she couldn't stop the strangled noise that escaped her throat as more text scrawled across her vision.

_**Oh, you thought we were done...?**_

* * *

Blinking awake at the sound of a door opening, Akari threw her covers off her body in one smooth motion, her hand reaching instinctively for the Senbon she always kept on her thigh, only to wrap her fingers around nothing.

"Woah, Woah there!" A surprised male voice met her ears. Narrowing her eyes, she quickly took his appearance in, noting that he wasn't armed in any way, he wasn't wearing anything very good for concealing a weapon, and above all, his Chakra felt weak, untested. He wasn't a Shinobi. If he was, killing him would be an act of good, because he would have been the worst she'd ever seen. "You're alright, nobody here will hurt you."

His words made her remember the pain she was currently feeling as her brash movements tore open most of her wounds. With a stifled hiss of pain, she forced herself to sit up despite his stammered protestations. "Where am I?" She asked bluntly, one hand reaching across herself to check her wounds, her eyes searching the room for a few moments before focusing on her own body.

She was still in an abysmal state, but she had plenty of clean white wraps covering her body. "You are currently in Anazia, not far from the Fire Temple. You were found at the side of a road by a passing merchant who brought you here. Your Hitai-ate and Ninja Tools are just in that locker. You were comatose, and as such, we were waiting for a Konoha-nin to visit the Temple, as we had informed the Monks that we had a Konoha-nin in our care." Nodding slowly, Akari finished her slow observation of her body, then shimmying back so she was in a half-upright position.

"Right. Well, thanks I guess. Your hospitality is appreciated. I'm Uchiha Akari, can I know your name?" The man's eyes widened as she spoke her Clan name, evidently, he recognized the Clan even if he didn't know her name specifically.

"Uchiha-sama, I am honoured to meet you. I am Shimada Benzo, Anazia's resident doctor." Akari waved his praise off, then grimaced as she realized she had waved with her stump of a hand. She wiggled it around a little with a frown.

"I don't suppose you found my hand anywhere?" The man looked positively horrified at her casual talking about a dismembered hand, already opening his mouth to rant about how unsanitary such a thing would be. "It's just that if I could find it, I could maybe re-attach it. I used to be known as the Crimson Medic, after all, that has to count for something. I mean, if I debrided the hand and my wrist then bound them together, maybe I could stimulate enough growth to re-attach the hand, then work on fixing all the nerve damage and cell-death that would have occurred. But then..."

Though at first uncomfortable thanks to her casual mentioning of reattaching a hand which by this point would have gone through Rigor Mortis, as Akari started muttering about medical terms, Benzo began to interject, leading the two to one of the strangest conversations either of them had ever had. A good half an hour passed with the two losing the entire time simply chatting about medical jargon which would go over the heads of anyone not accomplished in the field of medicine.

But, like many good things, it had to come to an end, with a knock at the door, then a face poking through, looking first at Akari in surprise, then at the doctor. "Benzo-san, a Konoha-nin was apparently sighted heading towards the temple. The nin was travelling too quickly to be spoken to by the villager who saw them, but hopefully, they'll be in the village within an hour." Nodding, Benzo stood up, walking to the door.

"Well, this was a pleasant experience Akari-san, I do hope you can spare the time to perhaps visit me, this conversation has enlightened me on a few subjects about Iryojutsu I once believed worked differently. The direct stimulation of cells still fascinates me, but as you yourself have said, it is merely a stopgap measure, reducing the lifespan of those who have had that Jutsu used on them." Nodding, Akari waved goodbye to the man.

"You too, Benzo, see ya later I guess!"

* * *

"Ahh, so it was you!"

While she waited for the Konoha-nin to show up, Akari spent the time very tentatively pushing her Chakra around her body. She had basically none available to her, and when she pulled even a little out of her Chakra coils, it burned as if she had just swallowed a vial of fluoroantimonic acid. What came out of her coils after she endured enough pain to make her want to just jam her thumbs into her own skull to end it was an absolutely pitiful amount of Chakra, not even enough for a Hi Yubi no Jutsu, a fire finger, practically the weakest of any Katon Jutsu.

She pushed it around her chakra network, making sure to keep it from flowing out of any of her Tenketsu, enjoying the mild burning feeling, the good kind of pain, as if she were stretching an invisible muscle. Even if her network had been mutilated, it wasn't broken. What was broken...was her Game. She still couldn't open it. It rankled her, and terrified her at the same time, that she couldn't access the system she'd been unabashedly using as a crutch her entire time in the Elemental Nations.

As such, when a familiar face, a long white mane of hair under wearing a horned Konoha Hitai-ate came through the door, she grinned. "Jiraiya!" The man frowned at her. "Uhh, Jiraiya...-sama?" He nodded thoughtfully.

"Hmm hmm, good try gaki. So, I hear the good doctor here has been having to put up with you for days, now how'd that come to happen brat?" Akari shrugged off the cover she'd pulled over herself, bearing the bandages wrapped around most of her torso, as well as revealing the more minor wounds, before waving her left stump at him. "Oh." He deflated, all sign of his light-hearted gregariousness gone in the face of his serious expression. "What happened?"

His voice wasn't the voice of the perverted member of the Densetsu no Sannin anymore, it was of the Sannin who survived through two wars, and who saw first-hand what that did to people. "I...was practising using Kurama's Chakra, when...something interfered. I'd just used a big Jutsu and needed a moment to breathe when somehow...it reversed time on me. It didn't send my body back, but...these were all wounds I've received before. Even...this!" She waggled a finger on her right hand, a small cut visible. "I got this when I was eight years old, yet somehow that...thing knew about it, and he brought it back..."

Sighing explosively, she shrugged at the Sannin. "Well brat, that's...something. And how's the fox?" Akari winced, feeling inside of herself again, then shaking her head. "Mind if I...?" He waved a hand at her stomach, to which Akari just shrugged again, then nodded when he hesitated. "Right." Reaching out, he planted his hand on the bandage on her abdomen, his warm, almost oil-like Chakra flowing on the surface of her network. "It's...gone." He muttered to himself, his chakra pressing into her Chakra network slightly as it searched for any remnant of Kurama's chakra.

Hissing in pain, she pushed his hand away, closing her eyes at his perplexed expression. "That wasn't all. Whatever it was, when Kurama tried to help me, it forced his Chakra straight through my coils. I can barely muster any Chakra, not even enough to produce a Hi Yubi no Jutsu." Exhaling slowly, she shook her head. "I don't know what the fuck it did to me, but...he's gone. The space in the seal is just...blank. Not even empty, it's like I just can't even feel that portion of seal any more, and that scares me. Anything could be hiding in that blank spot, only an errant twitch away from mutilating my Chakra network further." Palming his chin, Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment.

"But, if he's not there, then where is he?"

* * *

Unbeknownst to Akari at that moment, Kurama was running across the Elemental Nations at a breakneck pace.

Sensors screamed as the pure volume of Chakra blasting past them rendered their senses blind to everything but the overpowering sense of fury and pain the Bijuu was emitting. The fox paid no mind to those he harmed, his eyes focused on one distant location which he rapidly approached. Several puny little humans tried to stop him with their weak attacks, but his fur shrugged their attacks off like the air that now breezed past his face.

His colossal body flattened a momentous scourge across the forests of Hi no Kuni as he ran, finally coming to a stop outside of what he once regarded as a prison, but now contained the only things which could help him. He easily hopped over the giant wall surrounding the location but became more cautious to avoid flattening any of the buildings as he approached one specific and familiar building.

He felt more attacks on his body, but again, they were several orders of magnitude too weak to even mark his fur, let alone harm him. Instead, he laid down that which he had carried all this way from the training ground which to a human was so far away, but which he had left only a minute ago. Several of the weaklings tried to approach, but his growling maw and colossal paws wavered them off. **"Untrustworthy runts." **He growled, forcing them away with a small emittance of his Chakra.

He remained there for all of a minute before a more familiar signature of Chakra appeared on the rooftop, his haori having been swapped for battle-armour. "Kyuubi, what have you done?!" The old Kage yelled, though all his words got were a displeased frown. The big fox looked down at the small bundle he'd carried here, then up at Hiruzen.

**"You are trustworthy. Approach."** He spoke, allowing the Hokage passage towards him. **"I did not do this, but if you do not find someone trustworthy soon...I shall be forced to level this village as recompense."** The casual threat too Hiruzen by surprise, since he didn't even know what he was meant to find someone trustworthy for, but, as if realizing his mistake, Kurama removed his paws from their protective position, allowing the old Kage vision of what the Bijuu had been protecting.

The bloodied, mangled and mutilated body of an unconscious Uchiha Akari.

* * *

**Ehehe...oops?**

**I kinda...seriously didn't plan that! Akari has been having way too much good luck, I felt like she needed to get smacked down a bit. She's going to get seriously overpowered soon, at which point I can have a lot of fun with her, but I felt bringing 273 back for one last go at fucking with her head would be good for this story.**

**The weird lightning thing that happened will get expanded upon, it's just that the whole 273 thing takes precedence.**

**Also, shamelessly took some of the idea of this from Engineer Extraordinaire. I do really want to know what you all think though. I personally think this is a good, logical way for this to happen, but please, tell me your opinions!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	28. Chapter 28 - Likewise

**A boardgame is referenced at some point during this, because in my headcanon, video games don't exist in the Elemental Nations. Or at least, not yet. So don't question that bit when you see it please! It still fits, like a DnD game or something.**

**I do hear you all, a lot of people are confused and not too happy with Chapter 27 If people still aren't happy after this chapter, I'll delete them both and pull all the 273 stuff out. I wanted him to come in for one last hurrah, which would also tie him off so he can't come in later to do anything. Plus, I like this idea I had, so hey, maybe when the context is added because of this chapter people will like it more?**

**It does honestly hurt to hear that so many people didn't like chapter 27. I for once honestly believed that to be a really good fun chapter to write. But then again, I'm the one with the context. I really hope that those of you who got annoyed decided to give me one more chance and read this chapter because most if not all of the 'issues' get explained. When this is all uploaded I doubt anyone will get confused because they'll immediately get context, but I couldn't stuff this chapter into that one, it would have been too long and I would probably not have been as motivated to write this all out.**

**Having all those kinda angry reviews meant I wrote out this 5k+ chapter in like 3 hours...maybe writing chapters that need the context of the following chapter is actually a good idea, if it means I write more at this speed? I dunno, anyways...**

**Please, leave that review at the bottom! I want to know if you still think this is bad. If so, well...I'll scrap these two chapters! I don't particularly want to delete 10,000 words of story, but if you all really don't think it's that good, then I'll just deal with it =/ Will mean the next chapter will probably be pretty damn delayed, since I'll have to figure out what I want to do instead, plus with me being an essential worker I'm still away during this Corona-crisis.**

_**Chapter 28**_

* * *

Blinking in surprise, Hiruzen lowered into a ready stance, his wary eyes observing the Kyuubi as he did the same.

A moment ago, he'd been yelling for all medics available in the hospital to convene on the roof immediately in the hopes that one of them would be trustworthy enough for Kurama to let them through. Then, he was...here, wherever here was. "Kurama, what is this?" The Bijuu made a choked noise in his throat, as if the words he was about to speak pained him.

**"I...don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."** Humming, he looked around. They were in no Genjutsu that he could tell, a swift swipe across his arm which drew blood made certain of that. Their surroundings were perplexing, a white plain devoid of anything, as though they were stood on top of a white, ungarnished plate.

As he looked around, he became aware of the sound of footsteps. Turning his head towards the sound, he was met by a white...figure. It, much like the surroundings, was completely plain, the only thing allowing him to see the figure was the fact that it had a black outline running across its edges, defining the main body in an extremely minimalistic way. "Well, I presume you are to blame for our current change."

The figure nodded, waving a hand in front of itself. Black text formed in a trail behind the moving hand.

**Hello. I am The Entity. I require your assistance in a matter pertaining to the one you both know as Uchiha Akari and U.O.273 - 2, the Entity responsible for her current situation. I understand you both likely have questions, so I shall endeavour to explain all necessary prompts. Keep in mind that I reserve the right to not speak answers to questions I feel nonconductive to our current discussion.**

Hiruzen held his tongue a few moments, formulating a good opening question. Then Kurama bellowed out furious words. **"I don't give a damn about any of that."** His voice was level, but the level of cold malice contained within made Hiruzen shiver slightly, though he stifled it with experience. **"Right now Akari is dying, and you've pulled us away from her. Put. Us. Back."** The Entity shook it's (His, perhaps?) head.

**Uchiha Akari will be absolutely fine. Much as her Mindscape ability allows a 100 times time dilation effect, when residing within this realm, standard time is all but stopped. However, I cannot maintain this presence for too long, stopping time on the scale of your planet is taxing, even for a being such as myself. Typically I would use the resources naturally available to me through means I am not at liberty to expose, but as of right now, those resources are unavailable.**

Though he was still growling, Kurama looked towards Hiruzen, prompting his own question with a questioning look. "If you are this powerful, why could you not merely solve this problem yourself?" He got the sense that the Entity was displeased with his question.

**This relates to the disconnection between myself and my normal resources. I cannot directly interfere in Uchiha Akari's existence any longer. This was stipulated after...I cannot discuss this any longer.**

Hiruzen raised a single eyebrow, something that the Kyuubi matched by folding his arms, the pair of them staring at the Entity. "So, you mean to tell me that you are being stopped from interfering, but whatever this U.O.273 - 2 thing is has free reign to manipulate our world, more specifically Akari?" The white figure shook its head.

**Incorrect. Your world has been, for lack of a better term, locked. No changes may be made. This was done in an effort to capture U.O.273 - 2, though he, or rather his presence, escaped before the system was locked down. What this did achieve was to seal a great portion of his processing power in your world, leaving him incapable of escaping a second time. We cannot undo this lock without freeing him to flee.**

Much of this talk went over the two other inhabitants heads, though Hiruzen simplified it. "So basically, you've sealed his 'Chakra', making it easier to catch him, but you also can't interfere with the seal, otherwise you'd free his energy and allow him to flee once again?" The figure nodded ecstatically, thankful that Hiruzen had simplified his words. "And how exactly do we tie into this?"

**I can no longer influence Uchiha Akari directly. As it stands, she will either die or become mentally deficient within a standard week on your world, which is not likely enough time for 273 to be deleted. I require a...'hand' if you will, an envoy who will perform actions which I am now incapable of. To pre-empt your questions, this would require entering the Mindscape of Uchiha Akari and breaking the illusion her mind is currently inhabiting.**

**To explain: Right now, Uchiha Akari is experiencing a false life. She absolutely believes that what she is seeing is reality, actively ignoring the minor errors and problems which have cropped up, even as her mind would normally realize she is trapped within something similar to a Genjutsu. She has been manipulated like this before, her intelligence not being as it should, leading to poor decision making.**

Hiruzen looked at the giant fox, who returned his look with a shrug. **"So, you're saying that Akari has been manipulated by this 273 thing before?"** He nodded. **"And I can't just blast him with a Tailed Beast Ball?"** He shook his head. At this point, Hiruzen interjected.

"You've said you're not at liberty to discuss certain things, but I think we need to know more about the specifics, in case we run into any mental traps or defences he might have erected within Akari's mind to stop us from aiding her." Kurama supported him with a firm nod, the pair staring keenly at the Entity, whose white body slumped in defeat.

**Alright. I already know when she wakes up Akari is going to have choice words for me, so what's one more discrepancy. I, or rather the resources I quantify, am the reason for Uchiha Akari's unpredictable growth rate, the reason why she can sustain wounds without death which would kill any other mortal, the method by which she routinely...'breaks the rules' as it were.**

**She has had access to a system known to her as The Game. This system allows her certain functions such as levelling up, granting her buffs, status effects, and other systems one would typically find in a roleplaying board game. I...do not wish to explain further, this is a secret I know Akari wished to take to her grave, to avoid being forced to attempt to produce offspring who also possessed this ability, lacking a way to prove that her children wouldn't be born with the exact same ability. Just to inform you, this ability is unique to Akari, her children will not receive the Game.**

Hiruzen frowned. "And who exactly did you have in mind for an 'envoy?" The entity just waved his hand between Hiruzen and Kurama. "You...wish for us both to be envoys?"

**Correct. Uchiha Akari trusts Kurama a lot, and she respects Sarutobi Hiruzen a great deal. Between the pair of you, you should be able to convince her that her current reality is false. If she adamantly believes reality is false, she will wake up from the dream. This is why 273 tried to ensure she would never question whether reality was real or not.**

**"Well, count me in. Akari doesn't deserve any of this, even if she has been keeping secrets. I'm sure the esteemed Professor here would agree that everyone has secrets they wish to keep, ourselves included."** Raising his eyebrows, Hiruzen none-the-less agreed with the Kyuubi, nodding to himself. He certainly had secrets he hoped to never see the light of day, as did any human.

"Akari is one of my best Tokubetsu Jonin. She's strong and skilled enough to be a fully-fledged Jonin, I just didn't want her to be eligible for a team, not at such a young age. When she wakes up...-" Hiruzen looked up at Kurama with a grin.

"I think a promotion would be a nice get-well-soon card substitute."

* * *

"So, how's your little scamp?"

Akari threaded her fingers together in the air above her face, rolling her head slightly to look at Jiraiya. "You know, you are his godfather, you can visit him at literally any time." The white-haired man shook his head, amusing her a little with how his hair flicked around.

"Can't do that gaki, too busy with- Hey, watch it!" Akari frowned, her attempt to punch the man in the face failing, instead leaving her wincing as she pulled her wounds again. "What's the big deal, eh?"

"The big deal?" Akari folded her arms over her chest. "The big deal is that you've never visited your godson, not a single time. I don't care if you're the goddamn Hokage, if you don't make even an hour a YEAR to see your godson, you're just a disgrace." Jiraiya hung his head, which had the unfortunate side-effect of bringing him close enough for Akari to swipe his forehead protector, sticking her tongue out at him even as she fought back her laughter at his hair now falling all over his face.

As the Sannin reached over to try and grab his forehead protector, the ground shook. Blinking in surprise, Akari watched as Jiraiya's face went slack, standing up mechanically and heading to the window. "Uhh, Jiraiya?" She asked curiously, surprised when the large man flung the window open and leapt out without a word. "The fuck?" She asked herself, slowly shimmying across the bed then, wary of putting too much strain on any of her wounds, standing up.

Fortunately, the small bedside table was wheeled, so she could use it as a mobile support for her body, which enabled her to slowly lope across the small room to the open window and peer out. Jiraiya was nowhere to be seen, but what she could definitely see, what really frightened her...

Was the giant form of the Nine-tailed fox rampaging.

* * *

**"You know, I really wish that damn Entity had explained that when we arrived, we wouldn't get a pleasant welcome."**

Batting away another Kunai strike with the end of Enma, Hiruzen pivoted the large staff around, the opposite end striking a devastating blow on the head of one hostile. Every time one fell, Hiruzen felt his heart give out a little. Even knowing all these nin were just fakes, it still pained him to kill so many Konoha ninja, people he'd seen grow up, get their headbands. Sure, many were those he wouldn't see often, those who didn't get missions directly from him, but he still recognized more than he didn't. "Evidently this 273 thing expected trouble. They almost act as though under the influence of a compulsion Genjutsu."

He prodded his staff outwards, forcing one Chunin back, then spiralling Enma around himself to ward off several attacks, at the same time his hands flipping through seals, his lungs billowing up with Chakra. "Katon: Goka Mekkyaku!" His lips split, spewing forth a grand wave of fire which, as its name suggested, annihilated the region in front of Hiruzen, turning several enemies to naught but ash. "At least this will hopefully begin to make Akari-san question what is going on?"

At the mention of his container, Kurama's head turned in one direction, towards where she was located. **"Hopefully." **The Bijuu then reared back several of his tails, slamming them downwards horizontally into a section of forest before sweeping them from side to side, as if wiping a table clear of detritus. **"What do you say we kick things up a notch?"**

Smirking, Hiruzen hopped on top of Enma, mentally extending the staff to a great height. As it reached the apex, he threw out four shuriken Shadow Clones, forming them into clones of himself as they reached their apex, each clone already forming hand seals alongside Hiruzen himself. "Sorry about this Enma." He apologized in advance as the five Hokage's finished their hand seals, each casting the same Jutsu. "Katon: Goen no Jutsu!"

Five colossal streams of flame spewed downwards, impacting the ground and intermingling into a colossal wave of fire. At the same time, Kurama finished his own, far more simple attack, sending the giant malignant orb of purple Chakra outwards with a flick of his tails. **"Tailed Beast Bomb!" **He announced loudly, watching as the orb fell a short distance away then erupted, vaporizing all the hostiles within the area. Since it was all an illusion, doing things which would be so destructive normally was entirely fair game.

Hiruzen's attack continued to burn through the forests, sweeping them clean of all life. Eve nthe trees became mere ash as the intense flames blasted them with unrelenting heat. After a full minute of streaming out flames, Hiruzen cut his Jutsu off, bringing the four clones who were holding onto Enma to disperse, refilling his Chakra stores slightly with what little Chakra they had left after such an intense attack. **"You doing alright there old man?" **Hiruzen shook his head at Kurama's unrepentant look, though he frowned when the giant fox swivelled around, nearly knocking him off of Enma with his tails. **"She's moving."**

Commanding Enma to shrink back to a normal size, he hopped off, sweeping up the summon with ease. "Then let's get moving. Hopefully, us two showing up like this will throw her off, which will be enough of an opening to make something happen. All we have to do is make sure she realizes that she's not experiencing reality at this point." Hiruzen then frowned, stepping to the side to avoid a ball of green oil. "Well, definitely not pulling out any stops." He muttered, seeing the white hair of his student approaching.

It was...unpleasant watching Jiraiya unceremoniously get crushed by one of Kurama's tails, the point of the giant foxes tail coming straight down in top of his head. With a shake of his head over how strangely the nin within this illusion were acting, Hiruzen followed Kurama, who had shaken off Jiraiya's blood from his fur and was now slowly making his way towards Akari. It was fast enough that Hiruzen had a hard time keeping up, but for Kurama, it was a pretty slow pace all things considered.

As he leapt across the trees, Hiruzen began planning what he was going to say when they met Akari. She would hopefully realize what was going on, but if she didn't, it never hurt to have a backup plan. As Kurama came to a stop, Hiruzen made the last few jumps to arrive at a clearing with a few dozen scattered buildings. He followed the giant foxes gaze to a single window where a heavily-bandaged Akari was staring back at them both in surprise. He opened his mouth to begin explaining, but...

**"Akari!"** Kurama got their first, putting his head right up against the window to look at her. **"Akari, Kit, listen to me. We know about the Game, that Entity bastard told us. He said that something called U.O.273 - 2 was messing with your mind. You probably don't believe me or think I'm a trick, so how about this?" **The Bijuu then whispered something, somehow managing to be quiet enough that even Hiruzen couldn't hear what he said.

Whatever he did say was immediately followed with a squeak of surprise, then the noise of a fist hitting fur as Akari punched the giant fox. "YOU SAID YOU'D NEVER BRING THAT UP AGAIN YOU BASTARD!" The giant fox guffawed, his head rising upwards as he laughed. Akari crossed her arms and growled up at the fox. Deciding to make his entrance, Hiruzen cleared his throat, noting with a small smile as Akari was immediately suspicious of him, lowering herself slightly into a Taijutsu stance.

"I didn't hear whatever Kurama said." He quickly covered for himself. "But what he said before is true. We both have heard of this...Game. I must admit, I regret that you couldn't trust even me with the knowledge of this ability, but I do not hold it against you. With how Danzo attempted to capture you, if this knowledge was also in his hands, he would have spared no expense." Akari was still wary of him, but not enough to need a combat stance. Though..."But it would have been ill-advised to attempt to attack me in such a state. Fake or not, I highly doubt you could beat a single fresh Chunin as you are now."

Akari grimaced, straightening up and grabbing the stump of her left hand with the right. "So...this is all fake?" Hiruzen nodded. "Hmm. Was wondering why I'd never heard of this place." Hiruzen blinked in surprise. He distinctly remembered the Entity saying that Akari was being manipulated, so she wouldn't realize this, but apparently she was already noticing problems.

"Akari, we were led to believe your...intelligence had been manipulated. Yet you still noticed this fact?" Akari shrugged, extending her hand outwards.

"Well, right now I feel like absolute shit, and I physically can't do fuck all, so all I had was time to rack my brain. Even a mentally-damaged person would probably have noticed that discrepancy by now. Anyway, I've run so many missions in Hi no Kuni that not knowing pretty much all the towns and villages would be stupid." She stretched her arms above her head. "So, what's the deal? Do we have to make a big enough explosion that this place destabilizes? Oh, oh, maybe I can- Hmm, nah, that wouldn't be it."

Hiruzen chipped in before she could continue. "Akari, to destroy this reality, you have to adamantly believe that where you are right now isn't real." The Uchiha blinked in surprise. Then she looked around for a moment before tapping her chin.

"Well, I mean, that's kinda hard to quantify. Logically, I know this isn't real, but my brain still thinks its real, so...oh, I've got it!" Hiruzen made a vague gesture, a 'go on' motion. "You can just use a Genjutsu on me. Make sure it's bad enough that my brain naturally tells me that this isn't real, and poof. We trigger the requirement, the illusion collapses, and we're all home for dinner!"

Hiruzen palmed his chin in thought. "Hmm, that could work. Alright, I'll give it a shot. Prepare yourself." Akari closed her eyes, took a breath, then nodded. Kurama lowered his head to watch in interest as Hiruzen began to form hand seals. "Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu!" He used the standard False Surroundings Jutsu, but made sure that much of her surroundings were distorted, incorrect. Things like her sense of gravity were thrown off, her eyes couldn't focus on anything, and all in all, it was extremely unpleasant.

With a lurching sensation, all three inhabitants of the fake world found themselves returned, or in Akari's case placed for the first time, within the white plain, with the Entity peering at each of them.

* * *

Akari stared at the white form for a moment, then grit her teeth, before her eyes snapped open a glowing crimson.

"BASTARD!" Akari yelled, lunging at him with her fist cocked back. She barely made it two steps before her wounds dragged her down, but she still cursed up a storm. "You...I fucking swear. if it wasn't what you had to in order to make me believe that I was in a fucking illusion, your balls would be finding a new home on my fucking coffee table!" Hiruzen chuckled slightly as the Entity took a hesitant step back from the irate Kunoichi. All three of them saw the text that appeared in front of him.

**I apologize Akari, I had no choice in the matter. I had to explain certain things, and-**

Akari interrupted him, her face a maelstrom of pure fury. "Enough. You said that 273 was, and I fucking quote, 'forcibly retired'. So how the fuck did he get back in again?" As the Entity began forming a response, she cut him off again. " You know what? I don't want to fucking hear it. Just..." Akari sighed. It wasn't her usual exasperation. It was a purely tired sigh, entirely matching with her wounds, each of which was now dribbling blood through her bandages. "...just don't let him do anything to me again." The Entity made an aborted motion to approach Akari, but stopped.

**That can certainly be arranged. As we speak, the Higher-ups in NoxCorp are scrambling to find exactly where he went. The one location he will not be able to return to is here though. His fixation on you was strange, but if we re-appears here a third time...you know what?**

Akari raised an eyebrow from her position on the ground, wincing in mild pain as the familiar screen of her Game appeared in her face. Her menu was manipulated by the Entity, bring her to her inventory where a new item was sitting. "What's..." She tapped on the single box, surprised when he buzzed an angry red at her. "What's that then?"

**That, Uchiha Akari, is insurance. If 273 ever returns, use that item. I've hard-coded it into your mind, you physically cannot be forced to forget about it, and all you need to do is merely request to use it for the box to open. This way, no matter what he does, 273 cannot stop you from using it. It will...guarantee that 273 does not bother you again.**

Akari shrugged. "Cool. Anything you can do about all...this?" She waved at herself, more specifically her torso and her missing hand. The Entity's featureless face shook from side to side, though she imagined that he was frowning. "O...kay, any reason why?"

**As I've already explained to your two compatriots here, your world has been, for lack of a better world, locked. This is to prevent 273 from gaining access to, putting it in easy terms, his 'energy'. It's all trapped here. He can't come back, and now it's only a matter of time before he's found again. And when he is, deletion of the errant Entity will be easy. but this also means that, for the time being, I cannot return your hand to you, nor repair your wounds. As you now have access to your Game unlocked, a good night's rest will repair most of your injuries, but your missing hand is not something I can as of this moment fix. However...**

Akari winced as the Entity brightened for a moment, rubbing her eyes as he faded from existence. "Uhh, Entity?" As she spoke, a crimson pendant appeared around her neck, surprising her.

**Apologies, I had to disperse myself to give me enough energy to remain for a while longer. Though, as I was saying, as soon as 273 is found, I will return and grant you your hand back. Until then, that pendant...if you would use your underused observe ability...**

Akari did so, the text for the item appearing as she pulled the pendant up into her line of sight. She stifled a gasp as she read the information listed, there...wasn't much, but what was written was terrifyingly powerful.

_**Pendant of Seikatsu - Grants revival ability for user. Self-use only.**_

**That pendant will bring you back from death. I hope you have no need for it, and I will be taking it back when I return your hand to you. Such an ability is not meant for mortal hands, but as this is arguably my own fault, that can be waived for the time being. Please, do not use it as an excuse to leap into unwinnable situations. If I hear tell that you have abused this boon, I will be greatly...displeased.**

Akari gulped at the rather harsh look she could feel the Entity giving her, raising her hand in a sloppy salute. "Gotcha. Uhm...I never really said this, but...thanks." She could tell that she caught the Entity by surprise with her words. leaning in so Hiruzen and Kurama couldn't hear her next words, she spoke softly. "If I didn't get this, then I would have died and stayed dead. Heck, how many people can say they got a second chance at life? So...thanks." Though hesitant, the Entity brought his hand up to Akari's shoulder, patting it once before returning to its neutral stance.

**You are most welcome...Akari Uchiha nee Sallow.**

Akari's eyes widened, a tear threatening to fall as she was reminded of her previous life in a far more impactful way, with her old last name, though she forced a smile. "Well, what happens now? I guess you send us back to reality and then I don't hear from you for another few years?" The Entity nodded.

**Correct. By my approximation, this hunt should take no longer than four standard years within the Elemental Nations, perhaps as little as a single year.**

Grinning, Akari turned around, wandering over to Kurama to sit by his paw. "Well, here's to hoping those years go by quickly!" Though he still had no face to emote with, Akari knew that the Entity took her words to heart. But, as her vision went white, she heard something that made her heart flutter, as the Entity spoke directly for the first time in the eight years she'd known him.

**"I hope so too...Akari Uchiha."**

* * *

**Wheeee!**

**...**

**I'm probably going to end up deleting this, but whatever, I like it. This is the absolutely LAST TIME that 273 fucks with Akari, I swear. If he ever appears again, which I dunno, maybe, maybe not, she has a bullshit-level item to deal with him.**

**And the Pendant of Seikatsu, if that ain't overpowered then what is? It literally allows her to revive herself! Granted, when the Entity shows back up he's taking it back, but...phew, you can tell he really knows how much NoxCorp dropped the ball this time. At this rate Akari's going to be leaving a 1 star review when she checks out!**

**Finally, Akari has the Game back. That means when she sleeps, most of her injuries go away. But, since losing her hand is a crippling injury, it isn't healed. Don't worry, I have a fun idea for that, she's never one to get knocked down and stay down! Think about Sei if you really want to have somewhere to base theories, it's pretty obvious what I'm planning!**

**But yeah, the only thing that actually happened, in the end, was that she lost her hand, and Kurama is now out of his seal...there's gonna be some repercussions for that, oh boy.**

**So, please review. If people REALLY still don't like this...though it hurts to do it to 10,000+ words, I'll delete these two chapters, get rid of the 273 stuff, and find something else to go to...**

**Up to you all, I am the slave to your whims! To a degree...Akari is not going back to Hana, fuck you all if you want that! =P**

**I do have a Pat reon, if you could send me some love over there, I'd greatly appreciate it. Also if you have a good idea for a pat reon reward, please tell me, I suck at coming up with rewards.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5 **

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	29. Chapter 29

**Okay then, so, not deleting those two chapters it seems.**

**I've heard what you all said, and that's why Akari got that present from the Entity, insurance. Just because she has it doesn't mean he'll actually show up again, it really depends on whether I think I could actually make something interesting come from it.**

**Anyways, glad to hear people kinda enjoyed those two chapters! It really means the world to me to hear that you guys think the stuff I write is...good...ish?**

**The AN at the bottom is kinda bulky, I just...really wanted to say what I do.**

**And please, leave a nice cheeky review! I love reading what you all have to say, you all always seem to have such awesome points that I stupidly miss, like the fact that ITACHI FUCKING EXISTS! (I genuinely forgot that Itachi was the Clan Heir, I said Sasuke was the Heir...I'm so fucking dumb.)**

* * *

When Hiruzen and Kurama arrived back on top of Konoha's hospital, the entire thing was just... pure and utter pandemonium.

For good reason, of course, considering the Hokage, the military leader of the whole village, had just disappeared beside a being who could quite confidently be called the strongest being in the Elemental Nations, only matched by the Sage of Six Paths in power. There were probably Shinobi who would rather claim that title like Uchiha Madara or the First Hokage, but they were dead, so they couldn't really complain.

So, when all of a sudden they reappeared, at the same time as Akari waking up in the midst of several Iryo-nin, the entire situation nearly ended up devolving into a Jutsu shootout between twitchy Konoha-nin and an already-livid giant fox. Fortunately, the Hokage, the excellent statesman he was, managed to calm the entire situation down somehow. How exactly, Akari didn't know, but the point was that nobody tried to send a Katon Jutsu at Kurama, and the village was still standing, meaning Kurama hadn't decided to just throw a Tailed Beast Bomb out.

Stretching her arms out, Akari looked around her hospital room. It was...not a sight she was used to seeing. Off the top of her head, she could think of maybe two, possibly three times she was forced to spend a night in a hospital, counting her old life as well. Then again, in her old life, if she got wounded, she'd probably just end up dead, considering how there weren't any hospitals she could go to if she got shot.

She shook her head, instead turning her attention out towards the window, seeing the colossal form of Kurama practically knocking the hospital over as he, in his own words, 'made sure she didn't do anything stupid'. How she could achieve that when she was confined to her bed courtesy of the four ANBU members hiding within the room was anyone's guess, but then again, she could always pull something out of her inventory to do.

On the subject of Kurama, she was torn. On one hand, she wanted him to be free, to roam the world as he once did. He definitely earned it after saving her bacon like he did, twice in fact. She hadn't forgotten how he saved her from Danzo, and then again against 273's illusion. But on the other hand, she knew that if he'd been sealed once, he would be sealed again.

If he was sealed within her again, he would be safe, or...safer than being out in the world. Plus, since this time she would be able to actually work on or add things onto the seal, she'd be able to perhaps add a few unsanctioned features, just for him, as a minor way to just say thank you to the giant regal fox for being her companion for the past few years. She'd have to convince Jiraiya that they were safe additions, but giving him a platter of karaage-fried chicken would probably be enough to tip him in favour of allowing it.

She turned her focus onto her left hand, or rather, left stump, frowning as an errant muscle twitched, her mind trying to move a hand which wasn't there any more. The Entity said he would give her that hand back whenever they managed to lock down 273, but that could be years in the making, time Akari really didn't want to spend uselessly. She slipped her right hand under her covers, manipulating her inventory without sight, then bringing out a sketch-pad and a pencil.

It was always hilarious to see the reactions of the ANBU as she pulled stuff from nowhere. They all knew she didn't have a single seal on her, nor on the bedding, or anywhere in the room for that matter, and yet, she was still able to sudden poof things into existence through means that they couldn't identify. She knew they probably begged the Hokage to let them interrogate her and find out how she was doing it, but since he knew, as well as knowing it couldn't be reproduced, he would be convenient for blocking those inquiries.

Sticking her tongue out at an angle, Akari began to scribble.

* * *

"FREEDOM!"

Akari loudly cheered, all but lunging out of her bed in her haste to escape. Three days. Three whole days of what had to have been some kind of torture. She'd never spent three days like that before, and if it were up to her, she never would again. Spending that long literally in bed, with only notepads and humourless ANBU for company was hellish. "Hold on there Akari-san!"

Stopping in place, one foot on the already-opened windowsill, Akari looked over her shoulder at her doctor. "Yes, Yakushi-san?"

The brunette medic just sighed in exasperation, one hand on her hip. "Honestly Akari-san, you should know how the hospital works now, you've been in here more that enough times. You have to actually be officially discharged. Just because I told you that you've been good to go today doesn't mean right now." Akari frowned, looking forlornly over her shoulder then back at the doctor.

"Well, I know I'm fine, this is my only problem." She waved her left arm around. "So, can I just leave?" Nono looked at her, then at the chart in her hand, before just tossing it onto Akari's bed and pushing her glasses up, pointing at the window.

"Fine, go. Just-" Akari didn't wait for whatever Nono was saying, she was already sailing through the air to land on a building, then zipping across Konoha at a breakneck speed. She hadn't had a chance to really cut loose with her speed and see just how fast she could go, but just thinking about her top speed was...terrifying. Once, she'd asked Might Guy just how fast he could run, and when he casually remarked that he could currently run at a top speed of maybe mach 100, on a completely normal, average day.

Mach 100. As in, 34,300 meters per second, or FUCKING 123480 KILOMETERS PER HOUR! Her mind spun for the rest of the day as she tried to figure out how the fuck someone could casually run at Mach 100 without literally tearing themselves apart, eventually coming to the conclusion of Chakra bullshit. Then again, she should have been ripped to shreds multiple times by how hard she sometimes landed whilst tree-hopping. At a certain point, fall-damage just seemed to stop occurring. At first, she thought it was because her Game had done something, but if people could run at speeds to which air resistance would literally flay every inch of skin from their body, then maybe there was something fun to experiment with.

Right now, after buffing her agility so extremely, Akari was running across rooftops at a very swift pace. She was nowhere near what she felt her top speed was, but still respectably fast. She did realize though that running at that kind of speed came with significant energy cost. It was why Guy ate so damn much food, he was burning so much sheer energy, both physically and by using Chakra to augment his own body, that he basically had to be a glutton, eating enough food to feed a small country for every meal.

It made her realize what had been niggling her for ages, the fact that she had been enhancing her body with Chakra naturally, sure, but she hadn't been actively training to improve herself, her speed, strength, and everything else. Currently, she was relying entirely on her stats. On one hand, that was good. It meant that no matter how little Chakra she had, she would always be just as strong and fast physically. But it also meant she had one less card to play in fights. That was one of the things she had noted down in her to-do list, right after two other, far more important events.

She'd already seen Naruto, Anko and Akana were both spoiling him rotten, so she wasn't worried about him. Anko was also looking after Monty still, as well as presumably training the snake, since the last time she'd actually spent some time with the albino snake, she had gotten up to level 7 somehow. Nowhere near strong enough to hold her own in even a genin-level fight, but still noteworthy.

But no, what she was heading towards was actually just outside of the village. She slipped through the gates with a jaunty wave to the guards, who realized what she was going and merely waved back, zipping into the trees and quickly arriving at her destination. She halted on a random tree branch, drew a long breath into her lungs, and bellowed out. "HEY KURAMA!" Her voice echoed through the dense forest of the Fourty-fourth training grounds, the Forest of Death.

As she yelled, she heard loud footsteps approaching her, turning around with a grin only to frown. "You're not Kurama." Indeed, the footsteps came from a pretty large tiger-like creature, except he had four eyes instead of two. She drew a sword out of her inventory, cracking her neck. She hadn't had an actual fight in a little while, so she was pretty excited to get back into battle.

Quick to oblige her, the tiger pounced forwards, reaching out with both paws in an attempt to slice Akari into numerous pieces. She dipped low, anchoring her forward foot to the ground with chakra then sliding forwards, pivoting around and entirely beneath the tiger, then raising her sword and slicing at the underside of the beast. As her blade scored a deep red line across the tiger's fur, she grinned...

Then yelped in surprise when one of the back-paws of the tiger lashed out as it passed, scoring three bloody grooves down her right bicep, causing her to drop her blade. She cursed, shaking her left arm a few times in anger. Normally, her blade would have entirely ripped apart the internals of that tiger. But because she didn't have a secondhand to add strength to her push, the blade found itself merely slicing along, rather than upwards and into the vital organs, meaning while it wounded the tiger, it wasn't dying just yet.

Deciding risking anything stupid was pointless, she formed several one-handed seals, spitting out a fireball without even bothering to incant the name of the technique. Her flame engulfed the tiger entirely, burning fur and flesh to ash in an instant, such was the heat of the Jutsu. She awkwardly rubbed the fingers on her right hand over her bicep, nudging the wound around a little with a grimace. She couldn't actually reach it properly, which meant she couldn't use her Mystical Palm Jutsu on it. Well, it only did a few hundred damage, so it would be healed in a minute at most thanks to her own natural healing.

Shaking her right hand off, she poked a finger at her sword, sending it straight into her inventory. She still hadn't decided on a blade she liked. The pile of random crap that the Entity gave her had a bunch of different items, most of them trash-tier like the sword she'd just pulled out. It was a sword, it did its job, but it had nothing special going for it. She had the Kusanagi, that seemed interesting.

Pulling the aforementioned sword out of her inventory, she twirled it around, feeling Kurama's Chakra signature start approaching her, having felt it for such a long time she when he got close enough, she could sense him. She was most definitely not a natural sensor, not from what people had told her, but she could definitely become an un-natural sensor through learning what peoples signatures felt like.

She pressed a thousand points of Chakra into the Kusanagi, grinning when the tip of the blade shot out to a distance of roughly twenty meters, then retracted after the three-second timer passed, coming to a stop the same distance as it began. It was a pretty expensive ability, that 1000 Chakra could be used for a lot of different things, like a 60+ meter Shunshin, or a 40-second usage of her Mangekyo Sharingan. Perhaps even five Shadow Clones with 6-hour durations.

Speaking of Shadow Clones, she poofed one into existence in front of herself, grinning at the picture-perfect clone of herself, who grinned back just as enthusiastically. "You know what to do, right?" 'Akari' nodded, pulling a book out of Inventory then walking up a tree, nestling in for a good read, whilst Akari watched on with a smile. Her clones could access her inventory, that was the first test. The second was if her clones could actually properly use her Chakra. They could, considering how 'Akari' just walked straight up the side of that tree, with seemingly no issues. "Hey, real quick, try and use the Gokakyu no Jutsu, I want to see how..."

Her clone had already stood up, one-handedly crossing through the signs for the Jutsu, then raising it to her mouth to blow out a colossal ball of flames, nearly falling out of her perch as she did it. "That...sucked." Her clone admitted, her hand pressing against the side of the tree for support, breathing deeply. Akari rubbed her chin, watching the fireball disappear into faint glowing embers which vanished into the forest.

"So, you can use Jutsu, but it drained you of Chakra." And it did. Looking at her clone with her Sharingan, she could see that roughly half of her clones Chakra had vanished. That meant that her clone would probably only be around for three hours now, instead of six. Then her clone poofed out, forcing Akari to move swiftly to stop her book from slamming into the muddy ground.

Catching it carefully, Akari threw it into her inventory. So that meant...it wasn't the quantity they had total, but a subdivision of quantity. They had to use a certain amount of Chakra to stay corporeal. Dipping below that meant they burst, being unable to keep themselves surrounded in a 'sheath' of Chakra. But with that shell being maintained, it meant that for only ten extra points of Chakra, they could maintain it for another full hour, which was why it was way more expensive to form them. 140 Chakra for the shell, 10 to maintain it, then another ten for each extra hour. **"Having fun?"**

Akari jumped slightly at Kurama's voice speaking over her shoulder. She'd gotten so wrapped up in her impromptu experiment that she's not noticed his Chakra signature steadily approaching her. She looked back over her shoulder to see the giant fox smirking at her, one paw crossed over the other as he sat down. "Well, less fun than you seem to be having." The giant fox chuffed at her, his crimson eyes glinting in amusement.

Smiling, Akari wandered over to where he was sat, hopping up quickly onto his paw and sitting down. Considering how absolutely massive the giant fox was, her presence on his hand didn't bother him slightly. She pulled out some Fuinjutsu supplies from her inventory and began scribbling away under her closest companion and friends watchful eye. She trusted a few people, sure, but Kurama was probably the only one in the whole world who she felt she could actually be open with, now that her secret was out of the bag.

It might have been because of the fact that they'd spent four years together, and certainly, there was the stigma from him all but levelling half of Konoha, killing Minato and Kushina, orphaning Naruto, but she looked past all of that. Considering how he acted, she honestly believed him when he told her that he never had control, he never wanted to do those things.

Frowning, her brush stopped mid-stroke. Raising the brush from her scroll, she looked up at Kurama, really looked at him, as he glanced around before putting his head down on his other paw again. He looked...not tired, he couldn't actually get physically exhausted, but...weary. He'd been living for, according to him, almost a thousand years. Compared to a human lifespan, that was ridiculous. Just imagining what his life must have been like, always being feared or jealously hunted for his power.

Akari bit her lip, harshly enough to draw blood, the smell of which drew Kurama's attention, leading him to look at her questioningly. "It's nothing." She wiped her lip, instead worrying at her nail as she considered whether in the end there even was anything Akari could do to save him from such a life. Even the Game probably wouldn't help in that regard. Her Fuinjutsu proficiency was at level 90 already, and while she couldn't see Proficiency levels, she was fairly certain hers was above Jiraiya, Minato and even Kushina's level, to the point where she believed the only person better than she was at Fuinjutsu was probably the Sage of Six Paths.

And even for her level, she couldn't think of a single seal which would help her best friend. It tore at her to set aside a project like that, something which would help him so much for all he'd done to save her bacon...twice. But, she had to capitulate on that issue. First things first, she had to regain the functionality of her left hand. Operating at half-strength for at best several years was not an option. She wiped her lip again, burned her now-ruined scroll with a quick Hi Yubi no Jutsu, then pulled a new scroll out, her mind pulling out information on everything she knew about how the Shadow Clone Jutsu worked, as that would be the basis for her newest creation, something to rival the Golan seal in utility, even if it would be far less widespread.

She already had a name for it...the Kage no Te seal, Shadow Hand.

* * *

"That's not fair."

Putting her head in her hand, Akari blocked her eyes, exhaling forcefully and regretting ever mentioning anything to the kid. "Naruto, just because the son of my Clan Head is going to the Academy next year does not make it so that everyone enters at that age." Naruto, unfortunately, seemed to be doing his best to ignore her, stropping to himself. "Look, Naruto." She gently gripped his chin, turning him to face her. "If you really, really want to, you can go when he goes. But not a single second earlier, and there's no way in hell you're graduating early. Heaven forbid you turn out like me."

Naruto giggled, jumping forwards to wrap his arms around Akari. "Thank you Kaa-san!" He yelled, making her wince. She put her hand on top of his head, her other arm wrapping around his back.

"No problem Kit." She then smirked, ruffling his hair up and ignoring his whine of protest. "But that doesn't mean you're escaping these get-togethers." Naruto whined, now trying to get out of her grasp to run away. "Hey! I've put...some effort into getting all those next-generation kids together, the least you could do is be happy that you know who you're likely to spend time with."

Even if it didn't look likely at the time, Naruto would...probably thank her in future for doing this, since it was quite a useful thing to have happen to him. She knew which Clan Kids would be in Naruto's year, the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi Clan Heirs all being Naruto's age. The Hyuuga Heiress was also his age, and getting Hiashi to actually agree was like trying to convince a caterpillar to do a backflip, practically impossible.

He eventually capitulated, but on the condition that Akari herself was to be guarding these little meet-ups. It wasn't really inconvenient since Akari planned to be there anyway, but the smug look he had definitely made it seem like he'd won somehow. Akari merely settled for the amusement of knowing that it really hadn't inconvenienced her at all, despite him thinking he'd gotten one over her.

Of course, she had to get the Uchiha Clan Head's son in on the whole thing, Uchiha Sasuke, alongside his older brother, who was the current Heir, Uchiha Itachi. When she spoke to him, he was surprisingly pleasant to speak to when asking his parents about the idea of Sasuke meeting those he would be inevitably spending time with at the academy. Alongside those more prominent clan kids were a few other kids she knew were going to be in Naruto's year, a few other Shinobi families that weren't large enough to be clans, as well as some civilian kids who were going to be sent to the Academy by their parents.

What almost caused the whole thing to topple down though was the location. Akari's apartment was nice, but nowhere near well-equipped to deal with over a dozen four-year-old brats. As such, she had to find somewhere else. Clan compounds were out of the question, the only one she might have been able to secure was a location inside the Uchiha thanks to her being a member of the Clan, but the Hyuuga would never let their precious Heiress into there.

Fortunately, the Akimichi came through for her, leading her to almost topple Choza over with her grateful hug when he told her that she could use one of the halls that the Akimichi Clan owned. It was practically neutral ground, unaffiliated with Hyuuga or Uchiha, so both clans would go with it, plus it would make the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi feel more confident thanks to the fact that Choza recommended it.

She'd maybe gone a little overboard hiring three genin teams to stuff the place full of toys, books, mats, generally everything her overactive mind could conceive that four-year-olds would like, even making a little game up in her head where she would use seals to form fake guns, making a rudimentary version of her Old Worlds laser tag. It was an absolute bitch to make it actually safe, but since the concept was super simple, it only took a day or so.

The idea was to fire a stream of entirely neutral Chakra, at such a low level that it would do literally nothing, but when detected by the seals on the armour the kids would be wearing, it would alert them that they'd been hit. That was, if the line of Chakra actually hit them. It was actually really fucking fun to get a dozen clones together, equip them all with the laser-tag armour and weaponry, then jumping, ducking, diving and generally having an absolute blast playing a way better version of laser tag.

She spent a while longer refining the seals, making them less prone to failure, then called it quits and threw all the stuff into a pile in the corner of the room, right alongside a pile of other weird ideas she'd come up with. The fact was that for the moment she'd gotten a bit stuck with her Shadow Hand seal, so she put it aside and focused on something else.

Shoving the doors to the hall open, Akari flipped the lights on, wincing momentarily at the brightness, then breaking down laughing at Naruto's surprised squeak as he laid eyes on the absolute playground Akari had set up inside of the Hall. She'd spent a long time working on it, as had those genin, but...just that noise made the whole thing worth it. She pre-empted his dash forwards by grabbing his collar, so when he tried to run int the room to start playing on something, he instead clotheslined himself, looking at her with disbelieving eyes.

"I didn't bring you here early so you got a headstart on playing with everything. We've got time to kill before the others arrive, and I want to see if you can figure something out." Though he had a frown on his face, his eyes lit up a little when she mentioned figuring something out, since he adored untangling something Akari made and getting praised for it. "If you can figure out what this does, then you might, MIGHT, be ready for the next level of Fuinjutsu." She suppressed her urge to grin when his face completely lost his previously-unhappy look, becoming more excited than a cat in a warehouse of Catnip. Pulling one of the laser-tag seals out of her inventory, she waved it in front of his face, having the paper quickly snatched from her grasp by an enthusiastic Naruto, surreptitiously activating her Sharingan.

When his face dropped slack in surprise, she couldn't help the laughter that slipped from her lips as he looked at her in incomprehension.

* * *

**...Yes, Akari is bullshit.**

**She lost her hand, and she's already working on a way to get around it. But fuck it, it's what I think I'd do. I do think the rationalization of her basing the concept of her new hand on the same way that Shadow Clones form their external shell is a cool way to do it. Plus, I liked the idea of her making the world's best playground. Let's not forget, all those Clan Heirs are four years old. Sure, they are all in a very mature world very unlike us in that they do not protect children from the harsher realities of the world, but they should still get a chance to play. Or at least, that's Akari's mentality, so next chapter is going to be all the Clan kids meeting for the first time in Akari's new Funhouse...oh boy.**

**Now, for some...well, apologizing. Sorry about bloating this chapter, but some of this I feel needs to be said. I'm sorry about how...off-putting Chapters 27 and 28 were. I did honestly and truly believe that they were good chapters when I wrote them. I understand that Chapter 27 is...an awkwardly cut-off chapter, but it was already 5k words. I don't want to go over 6k for this story, it feels too long compared to the average. Chapter 10 and 11 were both 6k+ and were noticeably longer in my opinion. I'd rather have shorter chapters which come out more often, but that might just be me being silly.**

**I'm also apologizing for bringing back 273. People really didn't like that he was a villain who could fuck with Akari, whereas she had no actual way to fend him off, making the whole thing feel cheap. It honestly was pretty bad. Now that Akari has insurance against him, even if I do think bringing him back would be good to tie him off, it'll probably be a 1k word segment where he comes back like 'Aha! I've got you now!' then Akari uses the item and destroys him, getting some nice revenge against him as well as ridding NoxCorp of a malicious Entity.**

**I do honestly hope that, for all this story has it's ups and downs, people can abide it, stick it through till the end, and maybe even beyond that! Akari's Game will be running a bit on autopilot, so no Entity coming in to chat for a while, and the quests will all be pretty generic, so I'll probably only mention them, she won't actually bring them up, aside from a fun one I have in _mind~!_**

**But please stay safe boos! If I suddenly vanish for more than a month with no uploads at all across all my stories, assume I've gotten sick, since I do actually still have to go out to work as an essential worker.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	30. Chapter 30

**For anyone worried, I will probably do two more chapters of Akari dealing with things before doing what will probably be the last, maybe second to last, time-skip of this story.**

**That's only a probably though, I might do the timeskip next chapter, or I might do it five chapters from now, that's the joy of having little to no planning. But I need to wrap some things up that should have been covered, like Shisui, Kurama being out of his seal, things that I didn't yet cover.**

**I'm also re-working my old chapters. Nothing big mind you, just fixing things, adding little extra bits to make the story flow better, stuff like that. So you might like to re-read it at some point, but like I said, it's pretty much the same as it was, I just fixed a few bits and added some pieces for each chapter.**

_**Chapter 30**_

* * *

Walking up the side of one of the walls with her left stump in her pocket, Akari knelt down and planted another pre-written seal on the wall.

Beneath her, Naruto was sat cross-legged on the mat-covered floor with a scroll across his knees. They still had maybe twenty minutes before the kids were expected to show up, so Akari decided she would...cover her bases. Considering how much she could dredge up from memories before she sort of...'took over' her current body, she recalled that at the age of four, she didn't really know any Jutsu aside from a weak Katon. But then again, she wasn't an heiress, so it could be different.

Deciding to play it safe, three of the walls for the hall already had reinforcement seals, just to make sure the kids didn't break anything. All the stuff inside? They could tear it to shreds, she had replacements for pretty much everything. But she didn't want Choza to get annoyed at her for damaging Akimichi property for her little get-together. It still threw her for a loop how much the Akimichi man trusted her, not only with the safety of his son and heir, but also letting her use one of his buildings for the whole thing.

When he explained that a mission she'd run two years ago meant that the Ino-Shika-Cho team who were nearby at the time managed to exfiltrate safely, all thanks to her rather distracting explosions of Katon Jutsu's, who otherwise would have probably all been captured and killed thanks to the situation they'd gotten just a little stuck into, she understood at least a little. It still baffled her, but at least now she had a reason for why he was so amicable when she basically came in, asked if she could drag his son to a playdate between a bunch of other prominent kids, then naffed off after he agreed.

A knocking at the doors to the hall called Akari's attention from the seal she was planting down, muttering to herself. " They're early..." She peered down at her son with a grin. "Hey Naruto, could you bring them in here? I need to put a few more seals down." The boy chirped an affirmative response, putting down his scroll carefully and bounding over to the door. Taking all the remaining seals out of her inventory and holding them between her fingers, she walked sideways along the wall, interspersing the last few seals then looking over her handiwork.

Kurama could throw a Bijuudama at the building and those walls would still be standing. Granted, a weak Bijuudama, and only the walls would avoid being destroyed, leaving the surrounding area broken, but at least a bunch of snot-nosed brats wouldn't be able to scratch the paint, let alone knock a wall down with an errant Doton Jutsu. They shouldn't even be using a Jutsu, but kids would be kids, if one of them knew how to use it, they'd get begged to show it off. Better safe than sorry.

She cut most of the Chakra to her feet, letting her body slide down the wall whilst still remaining upright, then transitioning to a jogging dismount smoothly, straining her leg muscles only a little as she came to a quick stop. As she did this, the doors opened, revealing the first arrival to be Inoichi, a little blonde girl, she recalled her name was Ino, trailing along behind him happily chatting away to Naruto, who seemed to already be overwhelmed by her forwardness. Granted, he was quite forwards and boisterous himself, but it seemed the young Yamanaka was already on her way to becoming a social butterfly. "Hey there Inoichi! Uhh, Inoichi-san."

The T&I head gave Akari a wave as she walked over, chuckling to himself. "You'll never get suffixes correct it seems Akari-san." He leaned in closer, talking more softly so the two kids who were chatting wouldn't hear him. "Thank you for what you're trying to do. If you weren't doing this, Ino would probably not spend much time with the Clan kids her age, especially Shikamaru and Choji, who are probably going to be who she's teamed with." Shrugging, Akari made a vague gesture at the hall.

"I mean, I can't say this wasn't all altruistic. Naruto doesn't encounter many kids his age, and since I don't want to let him into the Academy earlier than I have to, if I didn't do this he wouldn't spend time with many kids until he was eight, though recently that's gone down to five, puppy-dog eyes are unfair." Laughing gently, Inoichi looked at his daughter with a wry grin.

"I understand exactly what you mean. Even against a trained interrogator like myself, the Puppy-Dog Eyes no Jutsu is simply too strong." Akari snorted, covering her mouth with her hand, her other arm waving about as she tried to stave off the harsh, barking laughter that threatened to ensue. "So, I know that you've tried to get most of the clan kids together, who else is coming? Aside from the rest of the Ino-Shika-Chou trio?"

Akari tapped her chin a few times, after she got her laughter under control that was. "Well, there's the Uchiha Clan Heir, Itachi, he's coming with his younger brother, Sasuke, since he's Naruto's age. There's the Hyuuga Heiress, Hinata, with her older cousin escorting her. Then we've got the Aburame Heir, Shino, who is coming alone, the Inuzuka Heir, Hana, and her younger brother Kiba, again Naruto's age. I did try to get a few regular Shinobi kids to come along, but when it was revealed that a bunch of big clans were getting together their heirs like this, I think that scared them off. The only one who had the balls to stick it out was a retired Kunoichi, Haruno Mebuki, she's sending her daughter Sakura along."

Nodding along, Inoichi looked around the room, his eyes raising as he laid eyes on several items he simply didn't recognize. Evidently Akari was serious about this, since she seemed to have pulled out most of the stops for this room. "So, what exactly do you have in mind in terms of the children all meeting? Perhaps once a week? Maybe bi-weekly?" Akari shrugged.

"I dunno, depends on whether the kids even like this. They might all decide they can't stand each other and all refuse to come back at all. Honestly, I'd like if I could seal this building with an entry-seal so they can come in whenever they want, after that just letting them organize it themselves. Of course, I'd still do something like ask them to come once a week on a certain day so they can meet and decide when they want to try and meet whoever, but whatever." Stretching her arms out, Akari looked around the room, then nodded to herself in satisfaction. "Okay, Naruto, Ino-chan, if you two want to try anything, go right ahead. I don't know when everyone else will arrive, but that just means you get first dibs!"

The two looked at her, then Ino looked at her father for permission, the two immediately bolting off towards the laser-tag gear as soon as Inoichi gave his assent. Akari chuckled as the pair picked up the light cloth vests and looked at them. "May I ask what those are, Akari-san?"

Shrugging, Akari just waved her hand in the vague direction of the two kids. "Well, the game is called laser-tag. It's perfectly safe, they could only hurt themselves if they got angry and decided that simply bludgeoning each other with guns counted as tag." Inoichi shook his head in amusement as Akari giggled. "The idea is that those-" She pointed at the rack of crudely-carved guns. "-are the 'laser guns', whilst the vests are body armour. If one of the kids aims the gun directly at a vest and pulls the trigger, it sends a really tiny amount of Chakra, completely inert and harmless, towards that vest, impacting it and tripping the detection seal."

Inoichi nodded along thoughtfully as she discussed her game. "When that happens, the gun that the one who was hit was using will be disabled for a few seconds, and the vest will be invulnerable for a few more seconds afterwards, granting immunity against being shot as soon as they could shoot back again, but only towards the gun which shot them, not other combatants. The winner is whoever got the fewest deaths, so team-work is actually encouraged...somewhat, since if they could draw they'd both win, meaning working together to scare off the others is a perfectly viable tactic."

As she explained how it worked, Inoichi watched as Naruto threw a vest on, then gave Ino one of the laser guns and told her to shoot him, which made the vest turn from the red colour it was into a black tone, then back to red after about seven seconds. "And...you came up with this how exactly?" Akari smirked wryly, shrugging. Inoichi knew then she wouldn't give him a straight answer, something which made his analytical side scream in frustration. He liked knowing things, so knowing that someone was keeping information from him for seemingly no reason irked him.

"I dunno, I just made it up one day." And it was arguably the truth. She made up the seal from her own knowledge, nobody had made it before. Of course, laser tag had existed before, but since she wasn't talking about that, she was merely telling a half-truth. Cracking her fingers using her thumb, she looked towards the door. A second later, it was knocked on. "Hmm, wonder who the next guest is...I'm wagering it's...Aburame Shino...I reckon." Inoichi hummed a moment, closing his eyes.

"I would say our next arrival will be...the Sakura girl." Raising her eyebrows, Akari silently demanded an explanation, even as she approached the door. "Well, Shikamaru has picked up his clan's habit of laziness, to which I believe that Choza will send his son to ensure that Shikamaru actually arrives, leading me to believe they will arrive at the same time, likely to be slightly late. The Uchiha and Hyuuga both will likely try to arrive at a very exacting time, at least ten minutes after the hall is meant to be open, to ensure they do not appear over-eager. The Aburame are very prompt, but it is still five minutes until the children were expected to arrive, so it wouldn't be Shino. The Inuzuka clan are a bit of a wild-card, but lean more likely towards being late than early."

Smirking, Akari could still see the picture Inoichi was painting. His mastery over predicting what people would do never failed to amaze her, it made her never want to face his far-more analytical Nara partner in a mental face-off. And he wasn't done yet. "That leaves Haruno Mebuki. She would likely want to leave a good impression, to ensure her daughter was able to mingle with those she would spend her Academy and Genin days around, so having her daughter arrive only five minutes early shows promptness, but not overzealousness about being included. We, of course, arrived rather noticeably early, but as my wife is currently out of the village and I have to go to T&I, I wanted to make sure of everything being up to scratch before I left." Nodding, Akari accepted his reasoning.

Hopping over to the door, she flung it open to reveal a vibrant head of pink hair, then was entirely unable to stop therefore before blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "Well, I can see why your name is Sakura." The girl looked surprised at her words, since they weren't exactly a standard greeting, but Akari interjected before she could say anything. "So, you're Sakura-chan, right?" The pink-haired girl nodded. "Cool, well, Naruto-kun and Ino-chan are already both in there playing with the laser tag stuff, so if you want to go join them, that'd be awesome."

Blinking in surprise, the girl wordlessly nodded, jogging inside and over to where the other two were fiddling with their vests, immediately being drawn into a faint conversation that Akari couldn't overhear by Ino. Her idle conclusion of the girl being a social butterfly was getting stronger by the second. "Well, I must be off, there will be a member of my clan coming by to pick Ino up when this is over." Nodding, Akari waved the man off, telling him to pass her greetings on to Anko if he saw her.

As he left, he sidestepped a short, hooded boy, giving him a quick greeting before passing him by. "Hello there! So, you're Shino-kun, right?" The hooded boy nodded, his face well-concealed by his clothing, something that always made her feel bad for the Aburame. The ones she spoke to never seemed shy, it was probably more to hide the numerous holes in their skin which were made for their Kikaichu to escape from.

Being honest with herself, the idea of bugs living under her skin really made her feel funny, like her skin was crawling, but she imagined that being used to it would mean that they wouldn't consider it strange. She stuck her finger out for a few Kikaichu to lazily land atop, smiling at the boy. "Well, I think everyone is going to start off playing laser-tag, so if you want to join them you can go right ahead, I'm sure Ino-chan would love to chat with you." The boy gave another curt nod, looking intently at the Kikaichu on Akari's hand before wandering towards the assembled kids.

Akari put her finger beside her shoulder to let the Kikaichu hop onto her shoulder. It was still just a tiny bit off-putting to know that a few minutes ago those little Kikaichu were living underneath someone's skin, but she didn't let it affect her. It would probably put points into her book to treat the Kikaichu with the respect they deserved, as well as making sure Shino was comfortable knowing where Akari was, meaning he'd always be able to track her down if he needed her help or something. Putting up with a little discomfort was well worth that insurance.

Glancing over at Naruto from her position at the door, Akari smiled, even if he was too wrapped up in explaining how he thought the laser-tag stuff worked to Ino. He wasn't explaining it very well, or even correctly, and from her stance, Akari knew that Ino knew he was just trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about, but the fact that she was socially-aware enough to not just point that out was awesome.

...Scary, that a four-year-old was that aware of herself, but awesome.

* * *

"Hello, Akari-san."

Suppressing a yawn, Akari waved at Itachi, her eyes catching the shorter of the two Uchiha as she nodded her head at the door, the little kid looking up at his brother then scarpering off. "Hey there Itachi-" She ignored his eye-roll. "-, how've you been?" The boy shrugged, his hand adjusting the Hitai-ate on his forehead. "Oh, and congrats on passing I guess."

When the boy raised his eyebrow, she gestured at the vest adorning his torso. "Ahh. Well, Thank you Akari-san." It was actually quite amusing, he didn't quite seem to know how to handle Akari, since she'd addressed him without a suffix, she was stronger than he, a higher rank, as well as being an Uchiha, which was a collection of statuses which meant he didn't know how to respond, so instead merely brought up a pressing question. "Have...Akari-san, would you happen to have heard any word of what happened to Uchiha Shisui?"

His voice was polite still, but his face seemed almost angered by something. "I can't say I have. I really should have checked in about that...well, to be honest, I have a bunch I need to deal with right now. I'm sure you heard about Kurama being pulled out of my seal, the reason why the Forest of Death is off-limits?" Itachi's onyx eyes widened in surprise. "Oh...shit, yeah that was Jonin-only information. Oh well, I'm sure your father would have kept you informed about it. So between working on a new seal, organizing...whatever the hell this is, and a few other things, I never got to check in with Shisui and see the damage. How bad was it?"

Itachi exhaled slowly, controlling himself. Granted, it was his best friend, so he earned that much, but it wasn't like it was Akari's fault. The past few days had been a maelstrom of chaos to say the least. "He lost his left eye and the use of his left hand." Akari blinked.

"Wait, seriously? And the medics couldn't heal his hand? I mean, I know trying to replace one of our eyes requires a blood relative to sacrifice their own, but his hand shouldn't have been hard to fix." Itachi looked at her in surprise, to which she rolled her eyes, folding her arms up. "Itachi, you know I'm the Crimson Medic, you should have hunted me down earlier to take a look myself. Fucking inept Iryo-nin. Look, after this playdate is over I'll go over to Konoha General, or his house, or wherever he's staying and take a damn look myself."

Deciding he'd gotten plenty out of this, Itachi nodded, muttering his quiet thanks as his eyes caught his brother just as the boy dodged Naruto's attempted ambush, the blonde having barely explained the rules before he'd run off and hidden, leaving the Uchiha holding his vest in confusion. He opened his mouth to presumably question how it worked, stopped by Akari walking up the wall. He raised an eyebrow as he craned his neck, Akari merely grinning.

"What, I want a better vantage point." Conceding the point, Itachi walked up the side of the wall after Akari, blinking in surprise when he saw her put a seal on the floor then perform a Jutsu he didn't recognise, a small chunk of earth pouring from the seal then forming against the wall, giving them a ledge to sit on. She promptly sat down and patted the spot beside herself, pulling some nibbles out of her inventory using the guise of the seals on her armguards, then humming to herself as she watched the battle going on in the hall, her mind running across seals the entire time.

She already had a seal she could use to hold Kurama which she was pretty happy with, but the problem was that one of the features she wanted to add, the ability for him to roam freely near her, wasn't quite working correctly. The idea was that he would fuel a steady stream of Chakra from his 'body' to the outside, connected to a form he could create with his Chakra, then his consciousness would inhabit the familiar, but would return to the seal, to his 'body', if the construct was destroyed. Since Kurama couldn't really die, that was the conclusion she drew from it, the smaller fragment of Kurama being drawn to the larger piece which would permanently reside within the seal.

The problem was that the seal didn't want to let the stream of Chakra go straight out into the world, it wanted to run through her Chakra Coils, which would mean Kurama's consciousness would be forced to remain inside. It was one of the few points of the Eight-Trigrams she couldn't change. She maintained her facial expression of mild interest in the game the kids were playing, but inside she was cursing up a storm. "is something wrong Akari-san?"

Well, except for the fact that to a user of a Sharingan her minute facial changes would give away her emotions plain as day. She shook her head in dismissal, giving Itachi a smile. "Nah, it's fine, just a Fuinjutsu problem, don't mind me. And no-" She pre-empted his question. "-it isn't an immediate problem involving any seal in here, it's something for Kurama." Itachi nodded once, then gained a thoughtful expression.

"If you'd like...perhaps someone to bounce ideas off would be useful?" Akari looked at Itachi in surprise, humming thoughtfully though when she actually considered it. She couldn't really think of a way around her problem, but that was probably because she was just seeing it from her own, very narrow perspective. She shrugged and turned to face him more.

"Well, the problem is that..." Akari began, but at that moment someone knocked on the door. "Welp, that'll be the Hyuuga then." The Nara and Akimichi had already arrived and were playing with the others, so the only one left to arrive was little Hinata. Akari slid down the wall quickly, hopping over to the door and opened it. "Oh, hey there Hana!"

On the other side of the door was Inuzuka Hana with her younger brother, who had a feral grin on her face, her ninken surrounding her. "I don't quite think we're Hyuuga, Akari-chan." She shrugged unrepentantly, stepping aside to let the two Inuzuka and their partners into the hall. She smirked when Kiba saw the game the others were playing with excited eyes and immediately barrelled away from his sister towards them to demand to know how to play, leaving Akari to walk up the wall again, followed by Hana after a few moments, speaking over her shoulder at the other girl.

"Meh, I forget things. I honestly expected you two to show up after Hinata, but whatever. So, how's it been going for you then Hana? Didn't you want to do some Iryo-nin stuff at the hospital?" The Inuzuka Heiress tilted her hand from side to side.

"Ehh, kind of? I didn't want to be an Iryo-nin for Shinobi, I wanted to be the animal equivalent, a veterinary med-nin." Akari nodded in understanding. After all, being an Iryo-nin didn't mean you could treat animals. Trying to heal the respiratory system for an animal using the human system as a basis would lead to very fatal consequences, just as trying to heal a human by using an animal as a basis would also have very negative consequences.

She then noticed the three ninken had also walked up the wall to sit on the little makeshift platform. "Huh...I didn't know ninken could use the wall-walking technique." Hana grinned, leaning back to pull one of the three dog-sized ninken to her side.

"Well, they can. That Jonin, Kakashi, his Ninken can even walk on water. Kuromaru, my mother's partner, is the only ninken able to do that within our Clan right now. But you three are certainly showing him up aren't you?" She got several yipping responses from the three canines. "Alright, alright." She pulled a small pouch of something from her vest, dispersing treats onto the 'floor' for her ninken.

Akari chuckled. "So, have to bribe them still I see?" And got an attempted swat at her head by Hana, though she avoided it with her tongue darting out in taunt. Itachi was watching the by-play with amusement, up until the point when Akari then dipped over his head, getting a hit to his cheek by Hana, who immediately panicked and began wall-running away. "Hey, Itachi, truce?" The boy nodded, his eyes turning red as he tracked Hana's movements.

"Truce."

* * *

"Please stop dragging your feet, Hinata-sama."

Gritting his teeth, Neji again lamented that he was stuck with escorting the one-year-younger Heiress to the Hyuuga clan. He could have been practising his Juken Taijutsu, or expanding his Byakugan skills, but instead, he was fated to merely escort the meek, pitiful and weak Hinata to a gathering of children. Why she was even allowed to waste her time on such a thing he had no idea, but what he did know was that she seemed hesitant to move forwards.

Unfortunately, despite knowing that if he spoke a few words she would turn right back around, he knew he would have his cursed seal activated for doing so. So instead, he merely kept her shuffling along, his eyes ringed with veins as he periodically and diligently checked the surrounding area for danger. A street-cat here, a handful of rats there, nothing worth really considering.

He even considered the chance that his father would have come back early from his mission, and he could spend time learning techniques from him, but that wasn't likely. Watching as Hinata almost tripped, he scoffed to himself, then froze up and turned in the direction they were meant to be going. The building that he had been told to approach was there, but when he looked towards it with his Byakugan, it was like trying to peer through a black void of nothingness.

He couldn't see what was going on inside, and that fact made him...extremely uncomfortable, so much so that he debated whether the pain of his seal was worth not entering that...darkness. Unfortunately, his decision was made for him when Hinata also saw the building and balled her fists up, walking towards the building swiftly, though slowing as she got closer and closer to the door. Growling in quiet anger to himself, he caught up with the girl, reaching the door first and putting his hand on it, then shoving it open to give his eyes vision on what was occurring inside.

Madness. The younger children were all playing some kind of game which burned his eyes to look at, whilst high above them Inuzuka Hana, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Akari all played some advanced form of tag with each other amongst light fixtures and ceiling detrius, certainly not the scene he expected to lay eyes on. Hinata obviously also did not expect this, for she was staring with wide eyes at the pure insanity going on. Akari then stopped atop one of the light fixtures and turned to wave at them casually, a wide grin on her face even as she panted slightly from exertion.

"Yo!"

* * *

**I forget stuff so easily.**

**I wrote a few hundred words about Neji lamenting to himself about fate. Then I wrote a few words about his father before remembering...Neji's father is still fucking alive you idiot. ****Also, we'll be seeing Shisui next chapter, that'll be fun. Akari will also finalize her seal, which might get a touch emotional.**

**Hope you enjoyed, and sorry about the wait!**

**(Just to clarify, because Akari is now cut-off from the Entity, she won't get any custom rewards from 273 fucking with her, nor any experience. But pre-made quests will still prock for events that are close to canon, so she will still get experience and rewards from those, she just won't get his input. I just wanted to clear that up for ya!)**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	31. Chapter 31

**Hope you enjoy, words and stuff woo let's****...bleh. I have a headache, my image of Ozpin has been spun around like a top, and above all else...I've run out of Pepsi Max Cherry! But whatever, I hope you all enjoy! Please do consider hopping over to my pat reon, I'd really appreciate any support you can give me.**

**Also...this one may make some people stop reading. I changed the seal, so Kurama is going to have a physical body, but I think people might get pissed off at how exactly I handled it...so, sorry in advance if you decide to stop reading, but I like cute things, so fuck it, fuck you, and fuck Kur...hmm, wait no, this isn't Hana Nanashi...damn.**

**Also don't actually fuck you, have a hug instead!**

_**Chapter 31**_

* * *

"...Why can't you just bring me normal trouble, Akari-san?"

Grinning unrepentantly, Akari just shrugged, waving her hand around. "Well, if I did, what would break up the boredom of doing...that-" She gestured at the paperwork adorning the Hokage's desk. The piles and piles of horrendous paperwork. "-for endless hours every day?" The old man had to concede the point in that regard. "Besides, this isn't as bad as some things I could have come up with. I just want you to look over it so if anyone complains I can say I got your approval to shut them up."

The man looked over the seal again, the many sprawling and crisscrossing lines quickly making the attempt at deciphering the seal merely an exercise in futility. "Akari, if you could please explain what changes you've made, that would be a good start." Akari frowned, looking over her own seal with a quirked lip, trying to pick where exactly to start, then doing as she normally would and saying fuck it to the whole thing.

"Basically, this seal uses the same Eight-Trigrams Seal Minato and I used to seal Kurama within me the first time. Of course, since this time Kurama is willingly going to enter the seal, we don't have to use the Shiki Fujin to seal him. But...I may have added a few things, just for convenience. For example, the first Eight-Trigrams was made in a major rush, so we didn't have time to really modify it. This one...well, with it, pulling Kurama's chakra through my coils should go a lot smoother. I still have to acclimatize to it, but it won't take so much to actually use his Chakra any more."

Akari watched as Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe. "I see. And what other features might this seal have?" Akari bit her lip. She knew that to an extent she could trust Hiruzen, since he knew about her unique circumstances but didn't pressure her. But it was still hard to trust him, since while he liked her, he had Konoha's best interests in mind, not Akari's and certainly not Kurama's.

"Uhh, I guess I may have slipped in a feature to let Kurama leave the seal to an extent." Hiruzen's only reaction was a slight raise of his eye-brows, a testament to both his control over himself and the fact that he trusted that Akari had an explanation. Which she did. Just as soon as she thought of it. "The idea is that he can send a small stream of Chakra out of the seal to form his own, albeit far smaller, body, then his consciousness could be transferred to it. This would let him experience the world again even as his main body is still within my seal. If that body was destroyed, his consciousness would simply re-emerge with his main body...or at least, that's the theory."

Hiruzen let Akari stew for a moment, a pretty good way to get some time of his own to think on what she'd said. While he was contemplating her changes, Akari was already thinking of the next seal she was working on, her Kage no Te. It was pretty much already made, she just had to make sure it wasn't going to cause an exacerbating feedback loop of Chakra, which would end up ripping her forearm to pieces.

That one she didn't have to explain, but since Kurama was, well, Kurama, she had to get the seal checked out by Hiruzen. "Akari-san, I trust you know to not abuse this trust I place in you when I say that you may use this seal?" Akari blinked in confusion. "You and Kurama share a connection possibly stronger than the Eight-Tails is rumoured to share with his Jinchuriki. As long as you are still defending Konoha as you have been, I see no reason to deny you this."

Akari resisted the urge to leap over the desk and hug the old Kage in appreciation, that wouldn't go down well with the ANBU currently in the room. Instead, she settled for the most earnest and genuine bow she could muster. "Thank you so much Hokage-sama! You haven o idea what this means to both me, and to Kurama." Hiruzen smiled in a grandfatherly way, his pipe being used to gesture towards the door.

"Well, I'm sure you would rather not keep Kurama waiting any longer than necessary?" He chuckled when Akari nodded, then spun around and Shunshin'd out of the office as quickly as she'd arrived.

"THANK YOU!" She yelled over her shoulder.

* * *

"So, ya know what to do?"

Kurama rolled his eyes. She couldn't help it though, even after going over the plan several times, she still felt like she hadn't taken enough precautions. This was Kurama she was talking about here, if anything went wrong, it would utterly kill her. **"I know what to do. I know so well, in fact, that I could recite it in my rest."** Akari shrugged unrepentantly, a pair of Shadow Clones kneeling beside her and drawing out the seal in tandem.

She had one singular shot at this, which was why she was almost burning a hole in her own abdomen with her Sharingan, making absolutely sure her seal was perfection itself as her clones drew it out. She then had to compress what had been written, otherwise it would never all fit onto her stomach. The seal key had already been written and given to Bao for safekeeping with her summons. That was the safest place for it after all.

And unlike the key for her old seal, she could actually damn well access it. The Eight-Trigrams key was held by the toads, which meant she had to rely on a toad summoner, Jiraiya, to retrieve it. This way, only she had control over her key, since no other panda summoner existed. "I'm sorry boo, I just really don't want to fuck this up, y'know?" Kurama huffed, and though he put his head closer to Akari, he made sure not to nudge or distract her or the clones.

**"You know, you really don't fit the mould of human any more..."** He muttered idly, and though she tried to hide it, Akari let a little bit of hurt slip into her expression. **"Not like that."** He chided softly, his eyes meeting hers fearlessly, even with her Sharingan swirling in her eyes. **"You are the...second human to ever treat me kindly. To even consider my own well-being."** Akari's eyes widened unconsciously.

"You mean...?" The giant fox nodded. He was talking about his own...'father', the Sage of Six Paths himself, Hagoromo. Akari grinned. "So, you reckon I'm getting as good as he was at sealing?" Kurama looked over her for a moment, frowned, then tilted his head to the side in serious contemplation. "Wait, Kurama, I was joking..." But the fox snorted, shaking his head.

One paw came to a stop above her, pointing at the nearly-completed seal. **"Only my father would have been able to modify an already-convoluted seal such as the Eight-Trigrams, made over dozens of generations of Uzumaki Seal-Masters, to grant me a corporeal form outside of the seal. You are not at his level yet, but I can't think of another being capable of such a feat."**

Akari stared at the fox in disbelief. Sure, she regarded herself as a damn good Seal-Master thanks to the extremely high proficiency level she possessed, but to be known as only inferior to the progenitor of Chakra itself? That was...a bit much. Then again, after Minato and Kushina died, she hadn't had a single real Seals User to compare herself against, what with Jiraiya being out of the Village all the time.

Her proficiencies were certainly bullshit in that regard though. She'd never really measured them, but it was like with every level, she just somehow gained knowledge she shouldn't have had. For example, compressing seals. She never actually read a scroll on how to do it, yet because her Proficiency was so high, she just somehow knew. Perhaps it was like how someone originally had to come up with the idea. She could skip grinding levels and try to use it, but she wouldn't know if she got it right or wrong.

Though then she thought about her Sharingan and realized she wouldn't have not noticed that sort of thing, but by that point she got a headache and gave up trying to apply logic to her Game. Her two clones dispersing may have had a hand in that, since that told her they were done, as did the influx of memories, both of them having concluded that the seal was actually finished. "How's it look?" She asked casually.

Kurama snorted, shaking his head. **"How would I know? I'm not a Seals Master." **Akari stuck her tongue out at the giant Bijuu, looking over her seal with Sharingan active, making sure then doubly sure that every portion was absolutely perfect. If this fucked up, there was no going back.

"Okay...I think we're good to go. So-" Kurama cut her off.

**"I know what to do, please don't explain it again."** Akari shrugged, waving her hand at the seal. Kurama reached his paw over and placed the tip of one claw against the smooth black lines, closing his vulpine eyes. **"Just for the record, if you die from this, I'm ripping the Shinigami apart, pulling you back out, just so I can send you back again in more pieces for being an idiot, got it?"**

Akari grinned and nodded. "Gotcha!" Then she felt the same burning feeling as four years before as Kurama's Chakra entered her seal. It was far, FAR less agonizing than before, presumably because of her acclimatization to using his Chakra. It still hurt, but it was bearable. It also seemed to flow far quicker, probably because Kurama was willingly pushing his Chakra into her seal, rather than being forced into it.

She felt a lick of Chakra already begin funnelling through her coils, the seals 'Familiar' function already working to form a far smaller, cheaper form for him to inhabit. But since Kurama had to push all his Chakra into the seal first, all it was doing right now was fizzling out as it tried to form a body, but failed. She saw Kurama getting noticeably smaller as he had less Chakra filling his form, which was admittedly quite funny, even if she was too pain-ridden to actually remark on it.

Then, it was over...just like that. "You good Kurama?" The fox muttered an affirmative, his Chakra already pressing through the seal and into her coils, leaving her with a permanent sensation of burning in her body, like she'd been exercising. It honestly felt great, and since she knew it was actually helping to attune her body to handle Bijuu Chakra, it was worth being in mild pain.

**"Now then, let's see how this goes..."** A spike of Chakra threaded through her seal, flowing through her Chakra coils to emerge from the Tenketsu on her fingers, jumping away and forming a blob on the ground, which quickly took the form of a fox. It only had one tail, far less conspicuous, and while she could sense Chakra from it, it was far less than she had just felt stood beside Kurama. **"Well, this is...unexpectedly pleasant."**

Akari bit her lip while Kurama inspected his new 'familiar' body, then tapped her foot when he spun around, finally throwing her arms up in the air and turning away. It wasn't fair. Animals were just so cheating, they were too cute. What she certainly didn't need was for Kurama to then clamber up her back and sit astride her shoulders. "Kurama, seriously?" The fox tipped in agreement, then put his head on top of hers.

**"Onwards Noble Steed!"** He yelled, yipping with laughter.

* * *

When she got to Konoha, to say the populace were surprised at her new companion was an understatement.

There were some yells that the Demon had come again, conveniently forgetting how Kurama had sat beside Konoha Hospital for several days without damaging anything too badly. But mostly it was just general surprise, especially when Kurama actually spoke to them, even if he was rather rude. There were a few far more innocent children who darted forwards and practically begged to pet him, which was just pure adorableness. What was funnier though was that Kurama, after of course acting pompous, let them do so, and even as he tried to hide it, Akari knew he really enjoyed it.

Thanks to her Sharingan, it was now a memory she would never forget, no matter how much Kurama tried to pretend it never happened...and that he didn't purr when one of them scratched a sensitive spot between his ears. But aside from being cute, Akari knew that Kurama was actually doing something quite sneaky. Being seen with children petting him would almost immediately make people raise their image of him in their minds.

If he snapped at them and drove them off, then, of course, he'd be seen as little more than a rabid animal. Granted, being seen as an adorable glorified pet wasn't that good either, but it meant there were far fewer people willing to openly slander him or Akari, so that was good. Not that many people did so any more anyway, not after several years of Akari serving Konoha extremely efficiently, then Kurama's second visit to Konoha being far less violent than his last visit. Four years wasn't a long time to forget such a thing, so unspoken anger still existed, but just through one small action, much of the hatred had dissipated into mere discomfort.

All thanks to a small group of kids who didn't really comprehend just how powerful Kurama was. Akari grinned at them, drawing their attention with the wave of her hand before spooking them by undoing the Henge over her stump, then drawing her other hand back around with some sweets that were in her inventory. That was one thing she realized would stop people staring so much, just having a Henge from her wrist which gave the illusion that she actually had a hand. It would only be necessary for maybe another week, but since it meant people only stared at her because they recognized her, it was still useful.

She reached her arm down to let Kurama climb back up onto her shoulders, smirking when all the kids made varying levels of awe at the inherent cuteness of a fox climbing someone's arm. It was an inarguable point, that kind of motion was cute no matter what...well, unless he was trying to claw her eyes out, maybe a bit less cute then. She shook her head of her silly thoughts and, after making sure Kurama was steady on her shoulders, walked up the side of a building, getting another wave of amazement from the kids before she disappeared over the top, hearing them all whine that the show was over.

Akari then started jogging home across the rooftops. It wasn't that she didn't want to interact with any civilians, it was just that right now, she wanted to get home. Sealing Kurama was pretty tiring on her Chakra system, so even though according to her game she had max Chakra, she still felt tired. Kurama yawned in her ear, so apparently he was tired as well. "Don't fall off bud."

The fox chuffed at her. **"Don't think I can't just attach myself to you with Chakra."** Akari raised her eyebrows, not having realized that he would actually know the wall-walking technique. Her face must have given her away because he gave her a deadpan look, which considering she was currently hopping across buildings made her stop and plant her hand on her thigh as she laughed.

"I swear I'm not laughing at you Kurama!" She quickly said when he actually looked annoyed at her. "Just...jumping around like that, then you looked at me, and...I just can't..." She said between giggles, Kurama chuckling awkwardly alongside her, which just made her laugh harder. She managed to get control of herself after a few moments of laughing, wiping a tear away from her eye. "Okay, let's just try to get home without something stupid happening again, yeah?"

Kurama just rolled his eyes and put his chin down on top of Akari's head.

* * *

Funnily enough, they managed to make it home before anything happened.

Of course, as soon as Akari came through the door she found herself ambushed from above and below by vicious assailants. One latched onto her waist like a limpet, the other coiled around her neck and flicked her tongue at Akari's face. "Could you two not let me make it two steps before this?" Naruto and Monty looked at each other, then back at Akari before both shaking their heads. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you two?" She ruffled Naruto's hair and extended her arm, watching Monty coil around down to her wrist then back up again so she was looking at Akari.

Well, at least close to Akari. It seemed Monty was feeling a bit defensive about the fox currently draped over Akari's shoulders, who looked no unbothered by the situation he might as well have just been a puddle. Then again, animals were pretty good at picking up things humans never could, so perhaps Monty knew exactly what Kurama was, even in a weaker form.

Or maybe she just didn't want anyone else laying claim to Akari. She rubbed the top of Monty's head, earning a lick of her tongue in return before the snake returned to glaring at Kurama. "You really couldn't stop these two?" Anko, from her claimed spot on the couch, just shrugged. "Well whatever. Thanks for covering while I dealt with this guy." She jabbed her thumb at Kurama, earning a light growl in return. "Touchy touchy."

She grinned when Kurama snapped at her thumb. **"I'll show you touchy in a minute."** Of course, then Kurama had to go and spook everyone in the room. Monty recoiled back down Akari's arm and onto Naruto's shoulders with a hiss, whilst said boy was backing away and staring at Kurama with wide eyes. Anko hid it well, but even she seemed a bit spooked by Kurama's deep, foreboding voice.

"Oh don't mind him, he always sounds like that." Akari just muttered, wandering over to the couch and, after letting Kurama walk down her arm and onto the back of the cushion, all but fell onto the comfortable material. When nobody said anything in response to her words, she groaned and dug her head from the half-buried position it was in to look around at the frozen faces of everyone else in the room.

Anko was the first to break the silence however. "Akari...so, every time...Kurama has spoken to you, he's sounded like...like...-" She articulated vaguely at Kurama.

Blinking, Akari just made an awkward noise in her throat. "I dunno, he sounds normal to me. Why, what does he sound like to you?" Anko and Naruto both shivered, Monty shaking her head in a similar way. "What?" Now Akari was genuinely curious.

"He sounds like he wants nothing but to tear us all to pieces. It doesn't help that his voice feels practically dripping with bloodlust." The Snake-enthusiast bluntly spoke. Akari made a pained rumble in her throat, looking at Kurama, who looked pretty nonchalant. Maybe that was why he got treated like absolute shit. To other people, maybe he always sounded like he wanted to murder them.

To her...he just sounded like Kurama. A bit rough around the edges, but under those harsh edges was the partner she'd trusted with even control of her body. He'd never broken that trust, even when he could have escaped. In her eyes, that made him worth trusting. And the fact that he didn't demand to know what the hell the 'Game' really was...

...it made her want to tell him all the more.

* * *

**I'm sorry, this one kinda...meh.**

**Next chapter will hopefully be the last of these kinda annoying ones. I mean, I love adorable fox-sized Kurama, even if he is still a badass, but I want to get back into action. So, next chapter will be this, no if's or buts. If I fail to do these things, you can scream at me to fix it!**

**1\. Deal with Shisui. It NEEDS to be done and over with. It also then ties her in with him, as well as Itachi. Don't forget the task the Hokage gave her all those chapters ago.**

**2\. Her Shadow Hands Fuinjutsu. When she completes that, she'll have use of both hands again. And since it's a tool, not an ability, all Shadow Clones she brings to existence will also have a Shadow Hand. Think of it like a Kunai in that sense.**

**3\. I forgot number three, but I'll update this when I remember it.**

**But please, PLEASE, tell me in the reviews all the things I've forgotten like a fucking idiot. I have really bad memory, and 99.9% of this story is in my head, meaning I really easily forget details.**

**I am re-writing a couple of chapters every so often. Not major re-writes, just fixes for stupid decisions. Did you know Akari was LEVEL FUCKING 9 in Fuinjutsu when she made the Golan Seals? NINE! What the fuck kind of drugs was I on to think that was high enough? So no, I have to fix things like that. I think level 35 is more reasonable. It also means her reaching the proficiency she's at now, only below the Sage of Six Paths himself in skill, is far more plausible. If she didn't take that 'Ink? Why Ink' perk in the beginning she'd be far weaker at it, but since she gets a 200% Exp increase to Fuinjutsu, learning it is a cinch for her.**

**I really hope you enjoyed! Even if you don't have a mistake to point out, please tell me if you enjoyed, if you hated it, if you were indifferent, I really love hearing those reviews.**

**Take care, and stay safe boos!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	32. Chapter 32

**Someone told me my AN's were really annoying and long, so...enjoy!**

_**Chapter 32**_

* * *

"Stay out of trouble Naruto!"

Akari rolled her eyes at the indignant yell that followed her words, pulling the door shut then taking a deep breath. It was good to know that today was...hopefully going to stay completely normal, no vengeful entities, or hypnotizing old men, not even an irate enemy nin to deal with. Today was, like the past week had been, going to stay peaceful, normal, and totally... **"I believe the term there is 'jinxed it'."**

She resisted the urge to flick Kurama on the nose. She didn't, however, resist the urge to without warning leap from the walkway of her apartment straight across the street and onto the opposite building rooftop, Kurama scrabbling on her shoulder for purchase as he was almost flung off. "I'm not jinxing anything, I just don't think anything should happen for a while."

After getting resettled and yipping at her ear in agitated repose, Kurama chuffed when he realized what she said. **"Each time you say it makes it more likely something will happen."** Akari ignored him, a loud 'la la la' being yelled in her mind. She quickly oriented herself to head towards the hospital, bantering with Kurama the entire way. Ever since he had his 'familiar' given to him, he'd adopted a far more...forward persona, presumably because he was actually manifested in the world, not confined to a seal.

Whatever it was, it made him a great way to distract herself from the repetitive task of building-hopping across Konoha. Beforehand, he would have ignored most of her casually spoken or thought words, only occasionally jabbing at her logic or simply the logic of the world when it suited him, or just like during her incursion at Hideyoshi Depot, when it would inconvenience or sometimes even surprise Akari.

"Akari-chan!" She cursed under her breath, even as Kurama yipped in laughter on her shoulder. She twisted to look over at whoever was calling her, recognizing Komachi's ANBU mask and belatedly coming to a stop. If it was a random ANBU she would have just pretended to not hear them, at least until she arrived at the hospital. but doing that to Komachi wasn't in the cards.

Komachi quickly caught up to her, and though Akari couldn't see her face behind her mask, she got the impression the ANBU was pissed at her for something. "Uhh, hey there Komachi, didja need something? Because I kinda promised Itachi that I'd go visit Shisui in the hospital and see if I could do something." Komachi made an aborted gesture at Akari, as though she wanted to strangle her in anger, then slumped her arms to the side with a sigh.

"You seriously need to stop getting in situations like this Akari-chan, that's twice in one week you've nearly died. Hokage-sama wants to see you for something. I don't think it's a mission, if anything he seemed annoyed at himself for leaving whatever this is for so long. But seriously, can you not keep out of trouble for more than a damn week?!" Akari scratched her head trying to remember if she'd asked the old man for anything, but couldn't come up with anything. Since Komachi obviously didn't know either, she just shrugged.

"Alright. Shisui has waited a week, I think an hour or two more can be forgiven." She then glared at Kurama when he whispered a snide comment about fate into her ear. But then a real grin came across her lips. "Oh, so you think you can talk to me about fate? Hmm, what was it...several decades spent sealed up like food in a shop?" He nipped her ear for that one, a light growl coming from his throat. "Oh come on, so you can say stuff like that but I can't? Hypocritical freeloader."

Komachi was watching the by-play with every opportunity, though most of her attention was on the buildings they were leaping across. "Is he...always like that?" Akari and Kurama turned to look at her at the same time with curious expressions. Or as close to a curious expression as a fox could have. "Well, like...just so conversational?" Akari looked at Kurama and hummed.

"Well, I think being outside makes him far more willing to participate. Especially since most times when I went in to check up on you, you were having a nice nap-time on the porch. I remember that one time you'd rolled around so far yo-"

His next bite drew blood, interrupting Akari as she winced. Not much blood really, but enough that Komachi could smell it. "Did he just-" Akari batted Kurama's head in response, then leaned her head back so his attempted headbutt brushed past her chin, leaving him open to getting his ear flicked. She was careful to control her strength, just as he was careful to avoid hurting her too much.

Having won that round, she looked at Komachi again. "Don't mind us. If I ever actually have a problem...I'm sure you'd know." She turned her Sharingan on for emphasis when she paused, the masked ANBU nodding hesitantly in response. "Besides, it's not like we'd ever actually hurt each other. Well...much." Kurama snorted, dextrously walking around her shoulders, then down her arm when she raised it, staying in place despite the fast speeds they were travelling at, then back up and across her other arm, coming to a stop once again draped over her shoulders lazily. "See? Perfect trust in each other. Or at least close to it."

Though she didn't look very convinced, Komachi apparently decided to drop it, instead filling the time with inane chat about Dango, deployment annoyances, things like that. She let herself get dragged into the conversation easily, it was preferable to silence or getting into arguments with Kurama. Then again, doing that was probably more fun than hearing that one of Komachi's friends managed to get pregnant finally. Or that apparently Towa was being skittish about something recently.

Those were normal problems, and Akari's life never seemed to have those. She couldn't even remember the last time she had a day where the only things that occurred were comparatively-normal issues. There was always something ridiculous going on, even if it was something as 'casual' as inventing a Fuinjutsu replacement for her hand, or as extreme as re-sealing the strongest Bijuu then wandering back into the village like she'd gone out foraging berries.

Nothing was ever normal for her.

* * *

"Ahh, Akari-san, come in please."

Akari refrained from giving the old Kage the stink-eye when she entered. He probably had a good reason for summoning her to his office. He could have picked a better time, but how was he going to know when she was just about to head out? So instead of getting annoyed, she just waved. "Hi there Hokage-sama, Komachi said you needed me for something?"

Said ANBU had already vanished to linger somewhere in the room, and while her Sharingan would probably reveal her location, it just wasn't worth it. "Indeed I did. Now, during that particular incident, as your partner might attest, I made a verbal promise, but have been slightly inundated with paperwork, so it's taken me some time for a clear moment to address this. Uchiha Akari!"

At his tone of voice, Akari unconsciously straightened. She might have been a really laid-back and casual person, but something about the way Hiruzen could speak just drew her to attention. Even Kurama seemed more attentive. Slightly. If she tilted her head and looked off to the side...with one eye closed. "For services rendered to Konoha in protection and pre-emptive defence, as well as actions undertaken during the Third Shinobi War, I hereby grant you the rank of Jonin." The old man ended with a smile, evidently happy for Akari.

Meanwhile, in her mind, Akari was running around in circles screaming her lungs out, and not in a good, nor remotely happy way. This wasn't good, this meant she'd have to take a team, she'd have to look after three fucking brats! Naruto was plenty for her, having to go out every fucking day to corral three annoying-ass kids wasn't something she wanted to do, period. Plus this would eat into her time doing shit like making the Kage no Te seal. Then again, she was already pretty much done, the last weeks calm having been put to damn good use writing those seals out, then tearing them into shreds and re-doing the damn thing when they each inevitably failed and blew off the arm of her clone. One of them even ripped her clone cleanly in two, which was mildly terrifying.

How Tobirama managed to corral so much Yin-natured Chakra into a tangible shape to form a Shadow Clone, then make a Jutsu of it...she would never know. To be honest with herself, if she never made another Jutsu involving Yin-natured Chakra, it'd be too soon. Then she stopped and felt like smashing her face into Hiruzen's desk.

She could have just fucking asked the damn man himself! Akari cursed her forgetfulness, asking Kurama, politely mind you, to remember for her so she could have a chat with the man who invented the Shadow Clone Jutsu, if only so she could learn how many times he lost control of the Yin-based Chakra and nearly tore his own body in two. Then she reopened her eyes in the real world, having abused her mindscape's time dilation ability to full effect. "Uhh, Hokage-sama...I don't really have time to-"

The Hokage stopped her by raising a hand silently. "Akari-san, you don't have to take a team you know. Or at least, you don't have to accept them. I understand that your own situation was unique thanks to the ongoing war, but a typical Jonin-sensei will be met with three Genin once every three months when the Academy exam occurs, and they will either accept the team and train them, they will fail them all, or they will take on one, rarely two of the students, and make them an apprentice." Akari raised an eyebrow.

"Uhh, once every three months?" Hiruzen nodded, his everpresent pipe belching a small cloud of smoke upwards.

"Indeed. The Academy has graduation examinations every three months to which any student can opt into if they believe themselves ready. Of course at the end of the year that graduating class must partake in the examination to decide if they actually become Genin, but students can take the examinations beforehand as well. That's how Itachi-san, Hatake-san and yourself graduated after all. Though if I am correct I recall you didn't opt into it, you displayed increased proficiency and were fast-tracked through your courses regardless of your own preference thanks to the need for more Shinobi in our forces?" Akari grimaced.

Around that time was when she'd unlocked the game, but she didn't want Hiruzen to start digging into her past and realize just how drastically she'd changed after she got it, or he might put two and two together and realize she wasn't really Uchiha Akari. So she did what she often would, she just shrugged, avoiding the unspoken question. "I guess so. So if I don't like any of the kids I can just turn them down?" Hiruzen frowned at her.

"You can, but I would advise you not do that. You must at least give them a chance to prove themselves worthy of what you can teach them." Akari rolled her eyes. "Do not be so quick to dismiss Genin, Akari-san. One can easily kill even the most skilled Shinobi if they get lucky with their strike." Akari shook her head.

"That wasn't what I meant. You know my situation, and you know what I do can't be passed on. I can teach them anything I've already learned, but any of my more special abilities just can't be passed on, you were told that by the E-...the guy anyway." She narrowly avoided bringing up the Entity in front of the ANBU in the office.

Hiruzen stood up, walking around his chair to look out across Konoha. "...I never wanted to pick this hat up again." Akari walked up beside Hiruzen, her own sharp red eyes looking across Konoha even as she listened to his words. "When Minato took the hat from me, I believed my days of being Hokage were over, that it was time to let the younger generation take over. Well...-" He chuckled humorlessly. "-we both know how that ended up."

Akari remained silent, not quite sure where Hiruzen was going with this. "Now, I know you'll never, ever accept this position, and, to put this as bluntly as I can, I don't think you're remotely suited to the role." Akari snorted, nodding her head in agreement. To get her to put that damn hat on, she'd have to have gone insane. "But...there is another role, one you inadvertently opened up with your actions. I will let you settle into your Jonin role before I discuss it further, but know there may yet be a place for you in Konoha's higher ranks. I'm sure you'd appreciate the freedom that comes with it in any case. But at least consider taking a team before we speak more on this."

While Akari was curious, she didn't get a chance to question him on the mysterious 'role', because Hiruzen took a scroll from his robes and laid it out on his desk, channelling a hair of Chakra through the seal inscribed on top of it, 'poof'ing into existence a green vest. A Jonin vest. Akari took it when Hiruzen gestured at the item, exhaling slowly. "I hope you don't expect me to wear this permanently, it'd throw my whole style off."

Hiruzen laughed loudly. "Just as your Tokubetsu Vest, hmm? Doomed to the closet?" Akari shrugged again, dropping the vest and making it disappear into her inventory. A flicker of surprise came across Hiruzen's face, recognizing that whatever she just did most certainly wasn't a typical storage seal. "Was that your...ability?" Akari nodded, smirking as Kurama informed her that all the ANBU in the room had visibly started at what she just did, raising a finger to pat between his ears. "I see...that would certainly explain some of the impossible things I've seen you pull off before."

Akari slumped in place. "Aww, I thought I got away with it all. Lemme guess, it was when I brought those bread-roll-bacon-sausage thingies out of my inventory to eat? Because fuck no if you think I'm sitting for eight-straight hours watching Kushina eat Ramen and not getting my own food. Besides...-" She hid her hand, then brought out one of those aforementioned food items, still steaming even after so long in her inventory.

"-it's still warm more than four years later."

* * *

After leaving the Hokage's office, Akari made her way to the hospital, this time not being waylaid at all by anything aside from a short pitstop to grab some Dango.

Of course, Kurama just had to try some, so she ended up getting two sticks. Watching a fox eating Dango was definitely not something she ever expected to do in her life, but it was funny to watch his reactions. At first, he stuck his tongue out in disgust, then he took another bite, then the stick of Dango became just a stick, the Dango vanishing into nothingness. It was pretty funny, though she promised to not bring it up again when he finally noticed Akari was watching, her Sharingan lazily twirling around in her eyes.

She did open the notification that had been blinking in the corner of her vision.

**Title Earned - Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

It was annoying to lose the +25% experience for doing Solo Missions, but it wasn't the end of the world. Perhaps picking up a team wasn't too bad of an idea. Hiruzen had informed her that the next Exam was happening in three weeks time, so she'd have to show up, look at all the Genin, see if there was even a single one she'd be willing to work with, then test them. it was first-come-first-served, so if she wanted a lot of options, she'd have to show up bright and early.

She shook her head then dropped off the rooftops, landing deftly on the road outside of the hospital. Akari quickly made sure that Kurama was settled before entering the building, ignoring the whispers, pointed fingers and stares from at least a quarter of the lobby as she walked to the front desk, giving a jaunty wave at the Chunin operating the desk. "Hey there Daisuke, you doing alright?" The Chunin returned her wave with a smile.

"I'm well Akari-sama, thank you for asking." Akari rolled her eyes at the honorific, it still felt just as weird being called same for anything. Sure, she single-handedly fixed blindness for a good portion of the Shinobi forces, but that wasn't really big compared to some of the stuff she'd heard performed by Tsunade, at least in her eyes. "Do you have a reason to be here today Akari-sama? I recall that you would normally deliver your seals on a Thursday?" Akari nodded, her eyes drifting to the stairwell.

"Yeah, there's someone I need to see, Uchiha Shisui, I believe he's still in the hospital?" The man leaned back, opening one of the cabinets behind himself and flicking through sheaves of paper, coming to a stop at one point then drawing the page out and laying it on her desk. She refrained from using her Sharingan, even if it'd make the whole situation faster.

He pointed at a specific point on the page. "He is, just head on up to room 306. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how to get there?" Akari hummed thoughtfully, tapping her chin for emphasis. "Akari-sama, if you are ready...?" She blinked and looked behind herself, realizing she was slightly holding up the queue.

"Oh, uh, sorry. I'll see you around Daisuke, yeah?" The Chunin nodded, his attention already focused on the next visitor. Akari headed over to the stairs and began climbing. Thankfully, room 306 was only on the third floor, so that was convenient. If Shisui was in room 1016 for example, ten flights of stairs was annoying, since she wasn't allowed to use Chakra to climb up, it would interfere with the electronics in the hospital too much.

As she climbed, she considered the oddity of technology in the Universe she was currently inhabiting. They had earpieces that wirelessly connected to each other, she'd even used some during her first mission when she lost her hand for the first time, as well as hospital machinery such as life support systems, but they didn't have computers, or common televisions, or even telephones. It was a weird disparity of technology, one that confused her.

She didn't really feel the need to correct it though. No doubt with enough time, Shadow Clone abuse and frantic experimentation she'd be able to recreate guns, computers, all sorts of things. She just...didn't really want to. She was having fun. Granted, sometimes bullshit like 273 decided she wasn't allowed to have fun, but since he was gone, she was free to, as the Entity put it, treat the world as her oyster.

She shelved her thoughts for the time being, having arrived on floor three quickly, following the placards along the hallways until she reached room number 306. She knocked softly, loud enough that a Chunin like Shisui would hear it, then entered when he spoke. "Hey there Shisui, how are you?" She said to the boy. And he was a boy...only 11 years old. 11, and he had his eye stolen just like that. It was fortunate that it was his left eye, since she vaguely recalled that he was right-handed, so losing that side of his vision would be even more crippling.

He turned to look at her when she'd entered, raising his right arm in greeting, his left a visible stump much like her own, though still wrapped up in bandages, whereas hers was bare and visible to the world. "Hiya Akari-chan! I'm...well, alright I guess. So, did Itachi send you?" Akari nodded, wreathing her right hand in green medical Chakra as she activated the Mystical Palm Jutsu.

"He did. Do you mind if I take a look at the stump?" Though visibly confused, Shisui did so, raising his left arm and letting her get a good look at it, even as her Chakra seeped into the area and told her all there was to know about the injury. "Okay, clean-cut, sealed with a coagulant...how the fuck did you seal a hand amputation with a coagulant?!" Shisui looked sheepish when her voice rose to a shout. "I don't even...look, Shisui, two options, and I swear after this I'm gonna go kick the ass of whatever Med-nin deemed your arm beyond help."

He grinned at that, but stayed silent, so Akari continued. "Either I clean this up, you get used to fighting with one hand, and that's that. Or, second option, I heal your hand. The good news? You get your flesh and blood hand back, yay. The bad news? It'll probably be stuck with a severe case of arthritis. Opening and closing the hand will be painful, as will really any kind of motion. The reason is that I'm basically building an all-new hand out of material gathered from your arm, so the ligaments aren't going to..." She trailed off when she saw his completely bewildered expression. "Basically doing anything with your hand will hurt like a bitch, until one day a ligament will inevitably snap, meaning you can't move your hand properly at all."

Akari then hummed softly. "Well, there is a third option, but it's pretty invasive." Shisui stared at her, and though it was offset slightly by the fact he only had one eye, the onyx-black of Uchiha eyes was perfect for intimidation. Granted, she wasn't, but she still felt his unspoken 'Go on.', so she did. "I'm working on a seal to replace my own hand for a time, it's gonna be called the Kage no Te seal. But it'll only work for me because I can perfectly synchronize the fake hand to the nerves and Chakra Network of my arm. To do it to anyone else, I'd have to watch you make a bunch of motions, channel Chakra for various Jutsus, then tune the seal so it registers-"

Akari sighed in despair when she realized Shisui had drifted off entirely to Neverland. She snapped her fingers loudly to get his attention again. "Oh-what? Uhh, I could just learn how to fight with one hand. I mean, you're known for being able to use one-handed seals, I could pull it off" Akari shrugged, her right hand casually pressing into the single seal needed for the Fire Finger Jutsu.

"I guess. But wouldn't you-"

* * *

After Shisui politely but firmly turned down any assistance she could offer, even after several attempts, Akari honestly felt a bit defeated by that.

Since the Entity wasn't around, it didn't become a Quest to fix Shisui's hand, but it still felt very in-the-spirit of her Game that she would fix his hand and everything would be great again...aside from his eye of course. But he turned her down. It honestly felt weird to be rebuffed like that, even if she didn't let it get her down too much. Besides, as Kurama was on her shoulders anyway, it wasn't like he'd let her get depressed over something so stupid. Now...no Dango in the shop? That was a depressing-level event right there, at least in his now-experienced eyes, aware of the world of Dango and it's deliciousness.

Akari pulled a stick out of her inventory for him, smiling softly to herself as he devoured it, completely ignoring everyone else as she walked down the street. He was definitely eager to try things, that was good. Considering how massive he was before, of course he'd never actually had a chance to try Dango, or ramen, or any kind of food, so it must be pretty awesome to experience the world of delicious food after a thousand years without eating.

He didn't need to eat, of course, his body was fueled by his own Chakra, but he could still taste things, even if they were disintegrated entirely by his body after being eaten. It was just that, being such a huge fox, that meant it was extremely difficult for him to ever really enjoy anything. Those things being animals 99% of the time, since he also couldn't just waltz into Konoha and ask for some dumplings to go.

Though, the mental image for that was definitely worth it, since imagining this giant fox just hopping the wall of Konoha, ignoring everyone to go to a dumpling stall and buying some...that was pretty funny. **"If I didn't get sealed again that is."** Akari rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, don't ruin it, now I've got that part in my head, that's no fun." He made a non-committal noise and went back to gnawing his Dango stick. "Did I ever say sorry?" Kurama paused in his chewing, twisting his head to look at her. "For sealing you? It's not like it was your fault really, you were forced into it. Of course, with this one-" She gestured at her abdomen. "-you had a choice. Not a good one really, but at least you got to choose. Before though..." Akari trailed off, yelping in surprise when Kurama nipped her ear. "What the hell?"

Then stopped when she saw Kurama actually glaring at her. **"Don't think for a moment you have to apologize for something like that. You were just as trapped as I was, there had to be somebody to hold my seal when I lost control since physically stopping me was beyond Minato's capabilities. You didn't have a choice, just as I didn't."** Akari opened her mouth to argue, but a growl from Kurama stopped her. **"Yes, perhaps you could have chosen to be the one to perform the Reaper Death Seal, but that's not the point."**

Akari considered it for a moment. The big fact was that because she was liked and well-known in Konoha, aside from a handful of assholes, life really hadn't changed after she became a Jinchuriki. Since she just kept on doing hat she was already doing, people pretty much just carried on as well, nothing changed. Now that she had Kurama as a physical presence on her shoulders, that would probably change, but as long as he kept up the cute fox act, she didn't really see a problem emerging. Then she grinned. "So, you're just a big ol' softy in the end, huh?"

Being batted in the face by his tail was definitely worth the expression on his face.

* * *

**Not a long note, just want to say something.**

**To the guest person who leaves reviews reminding me of Watching Rose, I promise I'm writing chapter 18, it's just a bit difficult for me since Illustrious had to disappear. I have no idea how long it'll take me to write it, it's only got 800 words right now, but hopefully before the end of May I'll have it actually wrapped up.**

**I will also probably do her experimenting with her Agility next chapter, she's gonna be surprised at how fast she can push herself now!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	33. Chapter 33

**I've decided that the bullshit speeds characters pull in late-game Naruto aren't going to apply as much.**

**They are still fast, but...fuck Guy's speed. Mach 250? Fuck no. That's over 300,000km/h. He's literally travelling fast enough to walk around the globe in about 8 minutes. All the way around. Start in London, run one direction, he'd be back from the other side of the world in only 8 minutes.**

**So...no. Characters are going to stay somewhat reasonable...aside from Akari of course, she's going to quickly get more and more overpowered, since she's gonna have another few years minimum of nothing much happening. That means she'll be able to level up quick, get strong, and when Akatsuki and all their schtick start kicking the nest, she'll be ready for them.**

_**Chapter 33**_

* * *

**"Akari, you're forgetting something...again."**

Blinking, Akari put down her brush beside the newest iteration/attempt of her Kage no Te seal, looking over at Kurama curiously, her head tilting to one side. "uhh, what exactly? I dealt with Shisui, I...uhh...help?" Kurama covered his eyes with a tail, sighing deeply. "Shut up, I'm forgetful."

**"How you've survived sixteen years in this world I will never know. I'll say one word, Tobirama."** Akari blinked.

"Oooh. Right. Whoops." She scratched her head sheepishly, her legs barely bowing when Kurama dropped onto her shoulders. "Well, I guess we can do it somewhere in the Forest of Death?" Kurama rolled his eyes at her. "What?"

He bopped her on the face with his tail. Or one of them at least. **"Yes, if you want to risk somebody stumbling across you with the dead Nidaime Hokage. You could just activate your seals and do it right here, it's not as though the Byakugan can accidentally look in and see Tobirama stood there." **Akari hummed, that was actually a damn good point.

"On the other hand though, what if he's hostile? I mean, to talk to him I have to grant him free-will, and it'd only take a second for him to use a Jutsu, longer than it takes me to force him to dispel." Kurama grumbled. "Aww, don't worry bud, it was a good idea. To be honest, I'm kinda feeling lazy today, so I'll end up doing that anyway. It's not like it's super likely he just attacks me out of nowhere."

Kurama snorted. **"You've probably jinxed it again."**

* * *

Giving one final check to her seals, Akari was interrupted by Kurama nipping her ear.

**"Stop fussing, your seals are fine. Now let's get this over with so I can go back to sleep."** Akari sighed, closing her eyes and picturing Senju Tobirama's face. Considering she saw it almost every day on the Hokage Rock, that wasn't hard. She made absolutely sure she was picturing him, then quietly spoke.

"Senju Tobirama." The air in front of her swirled into white smoke, concealing the form that appeared within for a few moments before dispersing. Even though she was watching with her Sharingan enabled she couldn't actually make out what happened, just that it kind of...did. She watched the smoke dissipate around Tobirama's form, leaving him stood there in all his glory, eyes slightly glazed over.

The pop-up to grant free-will appeared, but Akari was too busy staring at him to notice. He...was...so...hot! Those gorgeous eyes, the red cheek things, and his hair! It was almost kinda like Kakashi's but way better. He even had a fucking fur coat thing going on. All in all, he was awesome. Akari reached out and poked his cheek, laughing slightly to herself. it was weird, she'd summoned Minato a few times, but Tobirama was...well, it probably had something to do with the fact that she'd never met the man before, it honestly made her a little nervous.

Fortunately, Kurama was there with his sharp teeth to steer her back on course, a quick nip to the ear, which was his favourite target, easy to get from her shoulders. "Ow, alright, alright." Akari mentally pressed the button to grant Tobirama free will, immediately backpeddling when his glazed eyes came into focus, a Kunai being drawn from apparently nowhere into his hand, his torso dropping low into a ready stance. "Uhh, hi there." Akari placated, keeping her hands in full view.

Tobirama gave her a sharp look over, his eyes pointedly avoiding her own. Evidently he knew about the Sharingan's power of direct eye contact, even if she'd never trained in that avenue of possibilities, Genjutsu just gave her a headache to think about. He then looked around the room, Akari letting him get acclimatized to his surroundings before she said anything else to him. "We are in Konoha." It wasn't a question, but Akari still nodded. "How did you summon me? This is not the Edo Tensei." Akari raised her eyebrows. Apparently the Second Hokage had dabbled in the art of necromancy to some degree, who knew?

"Uhh, it's an ability of my Sharingan." He stared at her for a few moments, so she elaborated. "It's called Megami no Mon. Basically as long as I can picture someone in my mind and say their name, I can summon them from the dead. They get twice as much Chakra as I hold when summoning them, so you have about...in a quantifiable number, enough Chakra for about 475 Shadow Clones if you give them Chakra for a whole hour, with a little left over." Tobirama's eyes never met her own, it was kind of unsettling, until Akari remembered her Sharingan was still active and disabled it. "Sorry, forgot those."

The Nidaime followed her action by rising up out of his combat stance, still ready for action but not expecting an imminent attack, yet he still didn't meet her eyes, he was still wary of her. "Does the current Hokage know about this ability?" Akari shook her head, frowning at his pinched expression.

"No, for good...ish reason, and it does have limitations. I can only summon three people in a 24-hour span, and people get cooldowns, so after I use them, I can't again, dependant on how strong they are. I estimate that you will be unavailable for at least a week after this summon. You also drain Chakra like a sieve, one percent per minute." Tobirama palmed his chin in thought, his Kunai disappearing somewhere again. "Where are you keeping that?" He held up an arm. "Oh, cool, similar to mine."

He had storage seals inscribed on his clothing, much like the seals on her arm-warmers and forearm guards. "Why did you summon me? You don't appear to need my aid in conflict. Perhaps a more scholarly discussion?" Akari shrugged, lifting her arm and raising one finger.

"Two reasons. Firstly, I want some help with...well..." She held up her left arm and removed the Henge laid over it, revealing her stump. "-making a Fuinjutsu to replace my hand. I'm using the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu as a basis for my Jutsu, but it keeps exploding. The other reason...well...I honestly just wanted to meet you as well. I mean, sure, Hashirama was the First Hokage, he defeated Uchiha Madara, blah blah blah. But come on, you were the one who kept things running...or at least, that's what I read when I looked into Konoha's history. Not to put down your other achievements."

The Senju raised his eyebrows, his arms folding over each other. "I'm impressed you deduced even that much, I was sure many of the library books explicitly placed the attention on my brothers shoulders, it left me free to truly help Konoha grow." Akari grinned. "I will not help you learn any of my own Jutsu..." Then frowned. "But I will help you with this endeavour of your own. You say it's based from my own Shadow Clone Jutsu? I would wonder how many people know that Jutsu now...but I digress. I assume you're having trouble containing the Yin-Chakra?"

Then grinned again. "Kurama, I knew I didn't jinx it!

* * *

"I'm going out!"

Akari yelled through the apartment, shrugging when neither Naruto, Kurama or Monty answered her. She hopped through the door and stretched her arms, wincing at the clicking and popping sounds they made. She'd just spent more than a few hours going over the notes Tobirama used a clone to help write, implementing a few seal parts that she'd accidentally overlooked. She knew of them, since her utterly broken Fuinjutsu ability somehow magically told her that those seals, that she'd never read about before, existed, but she had forgotten to use them.

It was honestly funny, since it made her realize how weird it was for games to let your character grow like that. Making 100 iron ingots shouldn't mean your character suddenly knows how to make steel, but hey, it was how games worked. Her own game worked in a similar way. She took the stairs down to the street for once, deciding that just having a nice wander and a break from scrawling seals was definitely well-earned.

Or she would have, but she bumped into Deidara just as he was leaving his apartment. "Hey there Dei, you going somewhere?" He turned to wave at her, sighing.

"Yeah, I've got a mission in Yu no Kuni, but I just had to explain to Ichika about why I couldn't just take her with me since she wanted to go visit the hot springs, un. Somehow saying that we're on mission and travelling at ninja speed wasn't a good enough reason, so I'm hotelling for tonight." Akari opened her mouth to offer her place, but he pre-empted her and shook his head. "Don't bother, I kinda want somewhere quiet to just...think, un."

Akari frowned. "You two gonna be okay? You know it'd break Akana's heart if you and Ichika split up. Oh god, no wait that sounds like I'm...alright look. Dei, do you honestly see yourself with Ichika in a year? Two years? Five? Because that's why I don't have a single relationship. Everyone I've ever met I just don't see myself with. Of course, being Kurama's Jinchuriki and a Tokubetsu...well, now just a normal Jonin, kinda limits the pool, since most people don't want a relationship with such a high-profile Kunoichi, even if there's definitely been a few guys who would be more than willing to get in bed with me."

Deidara's face got considerably redder when she so casually referenced sex, something Akari most certainly picked up on. "Aww, is little Dei-chan prudish about sex?" His face got brighter as she spoke, though he distracted her by digging his hand into one of his ever-present pouches, chewing up some clay to make a small eagle which came to settle on Akari's shoulder, nudging her cheek with a warble. "...Alright, you win." She muttered, patting the little bird on the head gently. "So not fair."

Deidara chuckled, chewing up another piece of clay in his hand. "Well, maybe letting me babysit Naruto wasn't a good idea when he's so loose-lipped." Akari swatted at him with her arm. "What?"

"He's four, and you had cookies. What was he meant to do, scream no and spit a Katon Jutsu at you?" The blonde bomber actually looked like he was considering the feasibility of that. "Oh shut up, I'm not that bad." He gave her a cynical look. "Most of the time...I mean, there was that one time I lit the oven on fire...or when I nearly burnt all the clothes...okay, I get the picture."

Deidara just said nothing, smirking at her.

* * *

After parting ways with the blonde near Konoha's west gate, Akari then left the village...temporarily of course.

She knew she was still meant to be on break, officially due to complications, but it was more Hiruzen wanting to make sure she was fully settled with Kurama back in his seal, as well as give her time to make her Kage no Te seal. That meant she could leave the village fairly confident in the knowledge that she wouldn't be needed for anything. If he did then, well, he was out of luck. She didn't have a single chance to leave the village for her next experiment beforehand, but today was the day.

What was the experiment? Well, Akari had 161 Agility points. She wanted to see just how far that would go. Ever since she upgraded that ability, she felt almost a little locked down in her speed, like there was a lever she could flip which was holding her back so she didn't run into walls. She'd been itching to release that mental switch ever since she first noticed it.

Presumably, it was some kind of inherent protection, something to make sure her sudden increase of stats didn't overwhelm her and make it impossible for her to move, but since she had the Sharingan, hopefully a lot of the problem would be mitigated. Since it enhanced her perception and basically sped up how fast she saw, that meant that with muscles able to actually keep up with her movements, she would be able to hopefully push them both to higher limits than before.

Of course, first she had to pick a spot. Somewhere not too far from Konoha, but not so close that she was likely to run into any nin leaving or entering the village. She eventually, after maybe a half-hour of casual searching, picked a nice large field, surrounded by dense forest but plenty of space to run around in. Even Kurama would be able to curl up and relax without knocking any trees over.

Akari did a few stretches, relishing in the feeling for a moment before she mentally threw the switch on her agility, activating her Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan at the same time. Then she facepalmed. She pretty much had to have a witness, otherwise she wouldn't really know just how much faster she was. Sighing, she flipped the switch again in agitation, then sighed. "Kurama, you there?"

She got an annoyed rumble in response. Even though he spent pretty much all his time in his familiar form, they still retained their connection, so no matter how far she was from Kurama's familiar, she'd always be able to speak to him. "Can you look through my eyes for a little while and see just how fast I am? Because I need to use my Sharingan for this, it skews my own perception up so bad I can't tell how fast I'm moving."

Though he made another vaguely-annoyed rumble, Kurama did as she asked. Why he also didn't have her sped-up perception of the Sharingan when looking through her eyes she didn't know, but right now it'd be useful for this experiment. "You ready?" She asked after a few moments.

**"Yes, now get on with it so I can get back to what I was doing. And next time, just use Megami no Mon."** Akari didn't bother to ask what it was he was doing, since if he wanted her to know he'd tell her, though she did apologize for forgetting about that. Instead, she decided in a target, the treeline on the other side of the clearing. To her, it felt like she took maybe thirty seconds to run from one side to another, simply one foot in front of the other, but of course that was through her sped-up perception of the world. **"You..."**

Evidently to Kurama it wasn't actually thirty seconds. "So, how long did I take?" Kurama was actually silent for a few moments, making Akari more and more excited.

**"You just ran a kilometre-long clearing in under a second."** Akari blinked, looking back at where she'd just come from. The grass wasn't destroyed. There wasn't a sonic boom. So...that meant two things. First, it could just be Chakra bullshit making it so that even running at absurd speeds, she didn't break the air and make a sonic boom, which would turn a human to paste.

Or, it could mean that the laws of aerodynamics were completely fucked up. "So...do you know how fast Minato ran?" She got a negative response...but she was still excited. There weren't actually many nin she knew who could pull something as bullshit as running a kilometre in under a second. Guy could do it, but that was because it was Guy, he broke logic for breakfast. "Well, how about some cake to celebrate this...thing?"

Kurama just snorted.

* * *

"And...done, I think. Hopefully."

Putting her brush away in her inventory, Akari stood up from her desk then lifted up the seal-paper. If this worked, she would then write a new seal, but backed by vellum, which would last far longer. There was no reason it shouldn't work, Tobirama had given her some seriously amazing pointers on manipulating Yin Chakra, so it wouldn't ever explode, that was nice of him to do. It would also be something she could hide under her forearm protector on her left arm, so she had a great spot picked for it already, somewhere where if it got damaged, chances are she had bigger problems to worry about.

Kurama looked down at the finished Fuinjutsu from his perch on the shelf above, his tails lazily waving around in the air. **"Impressive, it doesn't look like much."** Though it didn't sound like a compliment, coming from someone who spent more than a dozen years sealed within two Uzumaki Seal Mistresses, then four years inside of her, someone who dabbled in Fuinjutsu quite often, that was actually a good thing. A seal which to his experienced eyes looked plain meant people would underestimate it.

Of course, nobody ever fully underestimated an unknown seal, but if people assumed it wasn't actually as powerful as it was, then people would pay it less attention. Considering people shouldn't be seeing it anyway, that rendered his backhanded compliment a little moot, but she was still happy to hear it. "Thanks, Kurama." He just yawned, it was pretty late after all.

**"Yeah yeah, just try it already so I can go back to sleep."** He drooped his head over her shoulder, peering down at the seal. **"And if it doesn't work, I'm going somewhere else to sleep, you make too much noise."**

Akari couldn't resist the urge to jab at him. "Lazy bones." Akari giggled when he growled at her, he was so touchy about the fact he liked sleeping. It wasn't like she was much better, she always liked a good lie-in, but he slept pretty much every chance he got, something that was honestly quite off about him. As far as she knew, he did the same thing beforehand, sleeping pretty much all the time. "Kurama...is the reason you're always so sleepy because your chakra filters through my seal constantly?" The fox picked his head up slightly to look at her.

Then snorted. **"No, sleep is just a nice reprieve from the world. I can dream you know, so sleeping lets me escape the boringness of the real world and into whatever may happen within my own mind. A thousand years of the same forests, mountains, and caves would bore any being."** Akari hummed sadly, reaching her arm up to rub his head lightly.

"Sorry boo, you know me, I just ask anything that comes to mind." He just gave a noncommittal noise but leaned into her touch slightly. Akari lowered her hand to the seal and hesitated for a moment. If this worked, great. If it didn't, she probably wouldn't blow her own arm off thanks to Tobirama's pointers, but it'd still be disappointing. Shrugging, she just did what she always did when faced with a decision, just went for the throat.

She funnelled Chakra into the seal, wincing slightly at the uncomfortable feeling of Chakra binding to her arm. It was like thin nails digging into her skin about a centimetre from where her stump was. Then, with a rather pitiful puff of black smoke, she was left with a glowing orange hand, white lines twirling around in various patterns. "Huh. I really expected more than that." She waved her new hand around a little, waggling her fingers, then tapping it against the desk.

Since it was based on the Shadow Clone Jutsu, she gained the 'memories' of touching things. But instead of having to dispel, it was a live feed, giving her feeling in her hand. As Akari wasn't a masochist, she hadn't put pain receptors into the Shadow Hand, but it could still experience touch. If something stabbed her hand, she would know something was touching it, but she wouldn't feel any pain from it.

Why it was that colour...she theorized that perhaps because, according to Sei at least, her Chakra looked orange with some strange whiteness twirling around her network, that the Hand took the colour of what her Chakra nature was. Since she had two, it merged the colours together into orange, thus making her hand orange in the visible spectrum. The white...she didn't know what that was about, apparently only she had it, Sei had never met another person with white lines twinned in her Chakra. It probably had something to do with either the Game, or her rebirth.

She folded her fingers together, then separated them and lifted her new hand to Kurama's level for testing. He sniffed at her hand once then nosed at it, finally giving it a strong bite. **"Looks like a success."** He said after withdrawing his teeth, Akari waggling her undamaged fingers around with a grin. She didn't want her hand to break nearly as easily as a Shadow Clone, so the Kage no Te seal used way, way more Chakra than a single Shadow Clone, to the tune of 15,000 Chakra Points. With that much Chakra, she could fuel one clone for 1436 whole hours, 57 days, or over eight entire weeks. Fifty percent of that went straight into forming the extremely dense shell of Chakra around her hand, the other half was entirely for upkeep.

From Tobirama's observations and estimations, her Kage no Te should be able to last for perhaps three months after using the seal, thanks to the fact that it was so small compared to a Shadow Clone. Considering she regenerated enough Chakra to refill it in only one minute, that would never be a problem. Adding Chakra was easy, it was forming the shell of Chakra itself that was expensive, plus if it was ever somehow broken by something, creating a new Shadow Hand would drain her of a good chunk of Chakra.

She briefly considered layering a Henge over her hand, since it was only two Chakra points a second to maintain, something she could regenerate easily by just dropping the Henge for a brief minute or so, regenerating Chakra, then layering it again, but eventually decided against it. Her new hand looked awesome, so she didn't care if people stared. Before people would look at her stump with pity, that was why she began putting a Henge over it, but now it was different.

Besides, Naruto was going to love it.

* * *

**There we go.**

**She has her hand back...somewhat. But as described to Shisui, this is a speciality seal, so only she gets a replacement hand. She had to work on it for a good while since she had time and wasn't on missions, which is why she won't make it more common. The Golan seal was enough for her, giving back vision to those who'd lost it, but the Kage no Te seal is her own personal creation.**

**Hmm, maybe she could get the Hokage to make it a Kinjutsu, putting it on the Forbidden Scroll, so only she's allowed to use it. That might be a good idea, considering how if someone inept tried to make one, they'd probably tear themselves or their patient apart trying to apply it.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 77**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 65,945/77,000**

**To Next Level: 11,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	34. Chapter 34

**Is there anything I forgot to cover? If so, please tell me. I'm fairly sure that with Chapter 33, all the stuff that happened has been dealt with.**

**...Oh, right, the lightning thing that happened right before 273...I'll deal with that next chapter.**

* * *

"-y Kami herself if you come home with one more toad or frog or otherwise, you won't eat ramen until you're a Genin!"

Akari blinked at her apartment door. She silently slipped the door lock open, pushing at the door carefully and peering inside. Akana was standing in the kitchen with her hands on her hips staring down Naruto, who had a squirming amphibian in his hands. "But 'kana-baachan, he's hurt." Naruto pointed at the frog's leg, which looked pretty normal to...oh. Naruto must have thought its leg was broken since it was bent backwards...even though that was how frog legs were meant to be. He'd obviously mixed up frogs and toads. She decided to interrupt before Akana could get more frustrated with Naruto, knocking on the door as she pushed it open..."Kaa-san!" And found her legs tangled up by Naruto's arms.

She quickly grabbed the frog from his hand before it could escape or slip somewhere unpleasant, her other arm tousling his hair. "Hey there cub, what's going on today then?" She felt Kurama hop up onto her shoulders, rolling her eyes at him. Even though there were plenty of shelves, some of which were now nicely-cushioned just for him, he always seemed to like her shoulders as his perch.

She didn't know why exactly, since her shoulders probably weren't too comfortable, but if it made him happy, she was all for it, since he was furry and soft, totally worth the extra weight. "I found a toad, but he got hurt!" He raised his hands for emphasis after pulling them back around her, surprised when the frog was gone. "Gama-chan?!" Akari smirked when Naruto started looking around in a frenzy.

"Naruto~." She held her hand up when he looked at her, the frog sitting placidly on the palm of her hand. "He's fine, this is a frog, not a toad. Their legs are meant to be like that." Naruto ooh'd at her, running over and holding his hands up. Akari sighed and tipped her hand, the frog dropping into his waiting hands. "Go and take him back where you found him please, I'm sure his wife is worried about him."

Naruto nodded, quickly running out the door whilst yelling goodbye to her and Akana. "Sorry about him Akana, I really have no idea why he loves amphibians so damn much." It certainly hadn't come from her, and it wasn't like Jiraiya or his father was influencing him into liking them more. Maybe it was just a Namikaze thing since his father certainly liked the toads he could summon.

The old woman waved her off with a smile. "Don't worry about it Akari-chan, I just didn't want him letting the critter loose in here. Either it would make a mess, or he'd be heartbroken when Monty ate it." Akari smirked. Monty was certainly big enough to swallow that frog whole, which wouldn't be good if Naruto had gotten even remotely attached to it. She stretched her arms up above herself, intertwining her fingers and making Akan gasp. "Akari-chan...your hand..."

Smiling, she waggled her left hand. "Yep, I finished the seal. I had to make a minor adjustment since a lot of Chakra was escaping as visible light, but it still looks awesome. Just tells you how scatterbrained Naruto is, huh? Probably the only thing he's picked up from me, and of course, it's my worst trait." She said with a chuckle. Akana just frowned at her. "What, it's true? My forgetfulness if my worst trait."

"I suppose...you still remember his birthday, right?"

* * *

"Why do they all suck so much? I didn't suck nearly this bad."

Hiruzen frowned at her. "Akari-san, at least give them a chance. And don't forget your situation was exceptional." She shook her head, looking at the folders with a frown. She'd been called in for the first batch of early-graduates, the ones who didn't want to stay in the Academy for longer than necessary, which meant looking over all their folders and figuring out which she could potentially mold into a cohesive team.

But to do that, she needed something good to start with, and out of all the new Genin-to-be, maybe one of them didn't entirely suck, but that was because she had a Kunoichi mother who taught her a few tricks. "Hokage-sama, if I may be so rude, they all just don't look like they'll ever work together. I mean, take these three." She pulled three profiles out, pointing at each in turn. "His hero complex will probably end up making him take hits for people when he doesn't need to, which will set off the other guys insecurities since he'll think he isn't strong enough, and she will be torn between trying to keep them both stable, which means if she ever gets hurt or killed they'll collapse entirely and never accept another team."

Before the Hokage could say anything, she pulled out more and more, pointing out reasons why they wouldn't work in teams. Then she reached one. "Takahashi Tachiko. Mother was a...seriously?" She looked up at Hiruzen. "Her mother worked in the red light district to support Tachiko's entry to the Academy, dying during Kurama's attack on Konoha." The fox around her neck bristled slightly, but said nothing, since it was the truth, even if he was forced into it. "She kept going, eventually graduating this year. Huh, she seems interesting. Maybe sticking her with those other two would actually work, she sounds like she'd be tough enough for holding them together."

Hiruzen puffed his pipe. "And they'll need a Jonin-sensei strong enough to pull them from the fire the first few dozen times as they learn to rely on each other." Akari rolled her eyes. Just because she pointed out how they could go together didn't mean she even remotely wanted them as her team. She could already tell that she'd want to push them each in the face for various reasons. Hiruzen picked up on this, frowning at her. "Akari-san, please, test this team. If they fail your test, then you won't have to take a team for another three months. Of course, that would mean they each either go back to the Academy, or they enter the Genin Corps."

Akari grimaced. It wasn't that the Genin Corps didn't do useful work, carrying messages, performing repairs, hauling cargo and guarding low-priority caravans, it was just that that getting out was notoriously difficult, since very few Jonin-sensei's would ever look, the only notable one Akari remembered was Anko, who Orochimaru pulled from the Genin Corps himself. "Fine, I'll test them. You have any good tests in mind?"

Hiruzen hummed for a moment in thought. "The bell test perhaps?" When Akari shrugged, she made him recall once again that she never had a standard education in being a Shinobi, having never gone through a Jonin-sensei test. "The idea is to have two bells. Tell the three Genin that whoever holds a bell after a time-limit becomes a Genin under your instruction. The point, however, is teamwork. They have to realize that simply taking the bells from you would be impossible, so they have to work together, teamwork. If they can work together, they pass. If however, they let selfishness divide them, then they would never work as a team, too willing to betray the others for a chance at being a Konoha-nin, something that goes against the very Will of Fire."

Akari zoned out just a little as Hiruzen spoke of the Will of Fire, how by betraying a fellow Konoha inhabitant, even in a simulated battle, was wrong, and blah blah blah. "Cool, so bells, test, send the three Genin to the corps when they all fight amongst themselves to get a bell while I sit in a tree eating Dango and laughing? Gotcha." Hiruzen facepalmed. "What, that's probably what they're going to do. Either that or the hero-complex guy will sacrifice himself so the other two can have the bells. What if they cut the bells in half though, maybe I should specify whole bells? Or if they Henge a stick into a bell? There's too many loopholes to this, but whatever. I might change something."

Hiruzen sighed. "Just...make it fair Akari-san?"

**Quest received!**

**Take on a Genin Team!**

**Objective: Test a team of three Genin to see if they are worth taking.**

**Reward: 20,000 experience, Future Quests**

* * *

"Yo!"

Akari smirked at her brothers surprised expression, having just shoved the classroom door open. "Imouto? What are you doing here?" Akari gestured at the assembled Genin with her hand, smirking as a few remarked on it. It was Hengeless, leaving the orange and white completely visible.

"Well, I'm here to take three of these brats for...a test. Oh yeah, I never told you, haven't seen you for a while I guess, Hiruzen finally promoted me to a fully-fledged Jonin." She then rubbed her chin. "Thinking about it, didn't you promise me all those years ago you'd take me for a drink when I got my headband? Because I know I've never been drinking with you." Her brother held his hands up in defence.

Akari threaded the fingers of her left hand through one of his, giving him a quick hug. "I forgive ya though. Now then...-" She looked over all the Genin. "-would Ito Hikaru, Suzuki Aito, and Takahashi Tachiko please follow me." The three who were called all got up from their seats, quickly following her as the made for the door. "And Sei?~" Her brother shivered at her tone of voice. "We're having that drink sometime, I still have loads of stories to drag out of you, getting you drunk will be a bonus!"

She left him like that, sticking her hands into her pockets and looking over the three hopeful graduates with a keen eye as they walked. "Alright then, let's get a move on, other Jonin-sensei's will be coming by, I don't want them trying to cherry-pick any of you." She mentally picked a good spot, one of the more secluded training grounds, somewhere she used to go when she needed space for something dangerous.

The best part was that it wasn't even too hard to get to, just a bit complicated since there was only one road that actually led up to it. She tuned out the mutterings of the three Genin, spending the entire walk conversing with Kurama about how long he reckoned that they'd last against her. She predicted maybe a minute at most. He claimed ten seconds. And after looking over the Genin, she amended her earlier statement. How long would they last, if she fought at a level they could beat with teamwork? He didn't have an answer that time. But, before long, they came to the training ground.

"Okay kits, take a seat." She waved her hand at the floor, flopping down cross-legged. After a moment of surprise, the three genin followed suit. "Now, most of the Jonin-senseis give their teams a day before this, but screw that, I want this all over and dome with. I'll be frank with you all, I don't really want a team, I could be doing a thousand other, far more enjoyable things with my time. But since I got made a Jonin, I have to look at a bunch of Genin every three months, take three who I could possibly work with me as a team, then go from there."

She ran her Shadow Hand through her hair, then considered it. "Take this for example. I lost my hand in an...incident, so I replaced it. It took me a few weeks, but I did it. That's the kind of stuff I get up to on a daily basis. But if I take you three on as students, I guess maybe 33% of my time will go into you lot. So, I'm just doing this right now. In all honesty, because I do respect you all enough for that...I don't expect you to win this. I expect that by the end of this little get-together, you three will ALL leave here disappointed at having failed my test."

Though they each looked mildly disheartened by her words, she could see they were still resolved to give her challenge its best go. "Now, I'll save all the introductory stuff, since if you fail this it would have just been a waste of time, and get right to the test. Now then..." Akari dropped a single bell from her inventory, having picked one up from a general goods store on the way to the Academy. "-your task, should you choose to accept it, is to claim this bell from me. Whoever holds this bell by...let's say two hours from now, wins, and they get to study under me. I don't have the time or patience for an entire team, so think of this as an apprenticeship test, not a Genin test. And before you ask, yes, I have the Hokage's explicit permission for this."

She didn't of course, but they didn't know that. "Now, it has to be this exact bell, as it is right now. No cutting it in half, no hanging a stick into a bell, no trickery of that kind because believe me...-" Akari activated her Sharingan, spooking the three. "-I'll know. The test begins when Kurama here yips." She rustled Kurama's head for emphasis, drawing their attention to him. He'd been lying still and practically sleeping the entire way, so they probably thought he was just a part of her clothing.

Akari tied the bell onto the strap of her right forearm protector, clicking her fingers together. "One more thing...if you don't come at me with your full strength, you will lose this fight. I may only be a few years older than you all, but I can guarantee I am plenty strong enough to be a Jonin. Remember that." If they underestimated her strength simply thanks to her age, she was going to kick their asses so hard they wouldn't be able to look at a chair without wincing for weeks.

After a few silent moments of Kurama looking at each Genin in turn, he yipped loudly, starting the battle. Immediately all three Genin disappeared. Or rather, disappeared as quickly as they could, since Akari still easily tracked their paths into the treeline, even if to them they disappeared in the blink of an eye./ "Well that was smart." She complimented, speaking audibly to Kurama. "A face-on encounter with a Jonin? At least I'm glad I don't know anyone that stupid." Somewhere in the distance, Naruto sneezed.

Akari located a tree and casually walked up to it, sitting with her back against the bark and her eyes closed. She could hear bushes rustling, a twig even snapped at one point, followed by a quiet, but still audible, curse. It was hard to tone herself down to a level where she wasn't beatable on their own, but was potentially beatable through teamwork. So she didn't bother. If they came at her one at a time, she'd kick them down harder than they'd ever experienced before.

But, if they came at her as a team, with a plan of any kind, she would be far less brutal. She didn't have any intention of giving them this win, but she did promise Hiruzen that she'd at least give them a fair chance. If she really wanted, she could kill all three Genin with a nonchalant wave of her hand. Not through chakra or Taijutsu, but through poison.

The three Genin were level 9, with the exception of Tachiko, who was level 10. Akari was immune to three poisons right now thanks to repeatedly ingesting them, which if she released the two weaker ones, or the stronger one, the three Genin would die in seconds. The stronger poison was actually the danger rating ten one she used a while ago, which would kill them easily. Her weakest poison would put them on critically-low health, but she didn't want to use that.

That was why she made sure that all the quick-access items she had in her inventory weren't poisoned in any way, shape or form, they were all clean tools, ones she dragged from the pile of loot the Entity dropped off, which pretty much guaranteed that they were clean. She then watched as Tachiko began leaning forwards from the branch she was on, readying herself to leap at Akari.

Deciding to see what the girl had planned, Akari merely waited until she lunged, fist outstretched for the bell on her arm, only to find herself sailing through empty air as Akari stepped forwards and turned. "Come on, that was your plan, just try to get the drop on me? I'm a Jonin sweetie, you'd have better luck trying to convince an Iwa-nin to not kill you." The girl growled at her, setting her legs into a Taijutsu stance, one Akari matched. She didn't hold back either, perfectly matching Tachiko's stance, right down to her slightly overextended leg.

The girl looked at Akari's stance, then her own, gritting her teeth. "You stole my Taijutsu style?!" Akari rolled her eyes as the girl let out an irate yell and charged her. She backhanded her first strike, stepping to the side to avoid the second, her eyes watching the girls every movement. Even in her anger, she was controlled, each blow aimed precisely, to maim and severely injure, even to kill a few times. That at least made her grin.

She was being taken seriously.

Akari kneed Tachiko in the side, sending the girl stumbling for a single step, enough that she could plant her boot into the small of her back then forcefully shove her away, sprawling across the clearing, coming to a stop with dirt in her mouth and grass in her hair. Kurama yawned. **"Behind you."** He muttered in her mind, since he didn't want the Genin to know he could talk.

"I know boo, don't worry." She still scratched him between the ears for telling her, even if he only did it because he didn't want to be dislodged. Akari turned away from the dazed girl, her eyes scanning the forest and quickly locating the two boys. They were actually working together, that was surprising. Of course, it seemed like Aito had taken charge, his heroic side shining as he pushed Hikaru's self-esteem down without even meaning to, too wrapped up in defeating Akari and proving himself the saviour of their team.

Of course, that kind of thinking wasn't logical, but it didn't matter, since they two boys seemed to at least have some kind of plan, Hikaru staying stationary as Aito dropped from the tree and began flanking her through the forest. Akari let him, her eyes lazily drifting over to where Tachiko was slowly getting up, a light amount of blood dripping down from her lip.

She had no intentions of going soft on her, and it seemed the girl had realized it when she wiped her mouth and saw the blood on her knuckle as she swiped at her lip in agitation. She spat to the side then resettled in her Taijutsu stance. "Really, you're going to try again?" The girl said nothing, so Akari sighed and swiped a vial out of her inventory. "Let's play a game then. This is a poison. There's a 66% chance that if you are afflicted with it, you'll die. Do you still feel confident attacking me head-on?" The girl eyed the vial warily, then looked at the bell on her arm and reaffirmed herself.

"If it means a 33% chance of becoming a Genin? Yes." She then charged again...head-on. Akari put the poison back into her inventory with a sigh, not even bothering to mimic her Taijutsu style any more. She leaned to avoid her first thrown punch, then backstepped away from her leg-swipe. When the girl recovered from the swipe, Akari darted forwards, her fist slamming straight into her solar plexus, knocking her over as she wheezed. Akari then planted her boot firmly on the spot she punched, drawing a gasp of pain from the Genin.

"You're a stupid girl, you know that?" The girl thrashed around under her foot, she tried punching, tried rolling, tried everything to get out from under her foot, but all of it stopped when she leaned a little more strength into her boot. "You should have learned after your first attack that backing off was in your best interest." The girl then laughed, surprising Akari. "You think aimlessly attacking a far superior opponent is something funny?"

The girl shook her head, her eyes filled with mirth. "No, I think your hubris is hilarious." Akari's eyes widened, lacing around and cursing herself at having gotten distracted by her anger at the girl's stupid way of attacking. She couldn't actually see Aito or Hikaru anywhere in the forest. She flickered her Sharingan for the briefest moment, just to know what was going on, even as she realized that Tachiko was actually a part of this plan. She kept her foot firmly on the girl even as she scanned the treeline, right up until the moment she sunk into the ground.

Acting fast, Akari leapt upwards, blasting a small Fuuton Jutsu to direct her path away from the patch of ground she was going to land on, having predicted that they would probably try to corral her. Sure, they were working together, but if their plan wasn't good enough to catch her, it was a moot point.

But, as she landed, she felt the earth beneath her foot shifting, a hand emerging to grab her foot. She kicked upwards harshly, pulling Aito from the ground swiftly, then holding her leg still when it reached the apex of the swing, flicking the boy upwards at speed. "Victory!" He chirped loudly, startling Akari. Looking at her arm, sure enough, her bell was now in the hands of Hikaru, who had used the same hole Aito came from to sneak up on Akari and grab the bell.

She genuinely didn't notice him, since she was too annoyed at Aito wasting Tachiko's distraction to just grab her leg. Humming thoughtfully, Akari held her hand out for the bell, only for Hikaru to hand it to Aito, who then...crushed it in his hands. "Eh?" She face-faulted. That...was not an outcome she expected from all this.

"We talked with each other on the way here, and we like each other's company. We talked in the forest, while you were sitting around doing nothing, and we realized that we don't need to accept you as our Jonin-sensei. We'd rather just go back to the Academy or the Genin-Corps and find a new Sensei...together." Aito clenched his hand for emphasis.

Looking between the three Genin, Akari saw they were all actually pretty resolute in this, so she smiled. "Well, I can't say that was an outcome I expected. Tachiko-chan, come here please." The girl looked a little hesitant, but did approach, close enough for her to grip her chin, softly mind you, and channel a bit of medical Chakra into her split-lip, healing it. "I didn't actually expect to be saying this, but you three passed my test."

The three Genin looked at each other, then back at her. "Your test?" Tachiko muttered disbelievingly.

"Yep, my test!" Akari nodded thoughtfully. "I changed the bell test a little, a singular bell means you'd be more encouraged to fight amongst yourselves. But you three turned that on its head. You spent the time before we'd even gotten here usefully, talking to each other. I admit, I was busy talking to Kurama here-" She caressed his head a little. "-so I didn't actually pay attention to what you were saying. I didn't really notice when you all grouped up in the forest, so I wasn't ready for this. Admittedly my sensor skills are practically non-existent, I rely more on Kurama and my eyes to find people."

Akari dusted her hands off on her legs, looking at the three Genin right in the eyes. "You three have surpassed my expectations, and you're literally my first Genin team to test. So, if you three are happy with it, I'll take you all on as a team. That sound good?" She put her hand out, palm down. After a few moments, Aiko put his hand on hers, a grin on his lips.

"A-Aiko, are you sure about this?" Hikaru stammered lightly, Aiko turning to him with his beaming smile.

"Sure! You heard her, she realized that we won't be split up, and we are a great team!" Akari rolled her eyes, nothing was set in concrete yet. But, inspired by his words, Tachiko planted her hand atop his, then finally Hikaru finished the pile. After a second she withdrew her hand, snorting when Aiko then pushed his hand up with a cheer.

"Awesome, that officially makes us Team Akari. Since you lot passed, I'll treat you all to any one meal, including my own home-made stuff if you so choose. Be warned, for I have been told-" Her voice turned ominous. "-it could put you off of normal food for all eternity!" She said with a cackle, her laughter matched by Aiko's boisterous and carefree laugh. "Besides, we now have to do the whole getting to know each other thing. Oh man, now I have to do paperwork, this is going to be such a drag."

Hikaru's quiet voice spoke. "Uhh, Akari-sensei?" She glanced at the boy, silently bidding him to speak. "Do you happen to h-have Nara blood?" Akari stopped for a moment, staring at him, before bursting out laughing, the boy nervously chuckling, but with a genuine smile on his lips.

"I don't think so Hikaru-kun. My mother is an Uchiha, and my father definitely isn't a Nara." She clicked her fingers with a sigh. "So, anyone got any suggestions?" The three looked between themselves, Aiko quickly drawing them into a leaned-in huddle. Akari didn't bother listening to them, instead looking at her nails, then her vest, finally giving up and staring at the three. "Any day now?"

They broke apart a few seconds later, Aiko stepping forward. "Sensei, we'd like to taste your cooking please. That way we'll know whether to trust any food you prepare for us on missions, or whether to assign somebody else to do the cooking." Akari rolled her eyes. It was a pretty reasonable thing to do, but she had a cooking proficiency of 55, those years spent cooking her own food having not gone to waste even slightly. If she bothered, she could probably make food the Daimyo would approve of. But, all that skill went into making her and Naruto delicious meals.

Since Naruto always seemed to like her cooking, that was all the credit she needed.

**Quest completed!**

**Take on a Genin Team!**

**Objective: Test a team of three Genin to see if they are worth taking - Completed.**

**Reward earned - 20,000 experience, Future Quests**

* * *

**Honestly...I didn't plan for Akari to take a team, it just sort of...happened.**

**I genuinely originally had her turn the team down, but they surprised me by doing...well, that! So, she now has a team. Originally, my idea was that she got a team a year or two before Naruto makes Genin, but now she's got one eight years beforehand. That's gonna make things interesting.**

**Welp, I hope you enjoyed!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 78**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 8945/78,000**

**To Next Level: 69,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**

_**5 Skill Points Available**_


	35. Chapter 35

**Just to be clear: Aiko and Hikaru are male, Tachiko is female...just in case anyone was getting confused.**

**_Chapter 35_**

* * *

"Okay you three, hold up. Before we go in, a few ground rules, break them at your peril."

Akari looked at each of the three Genin, her focus staying on Aiko for a few seconds longer than the others. "One, if I see any of you doing something stupid like playing around with a Kunai, I will hurt you, badly. Two, anything I say goes. if I tell you to do something, there's a damn good reason for it. And three...-" Akari pushed the door, open, revealing Naruto, who was leaning out from the side of the door and listening, with Monty wrapped around his neck. "-make sure this little kit doesn't get his hands on too much ramen." She muttered as he flopped to the floor.

Of course, being Naruto, he scrambled to his feet quickly, wrapping his arms around Akari. "Welcome home Kaa-san!" He yelled, making Akari groan in frustration as her Genin all gave her disbelieving looks. Naruto finally bothered to take note of the three Genin, looking at them each, then back at Akari. "Who are they Kaa-san?" Akari lifted Naruto up onto her arm, he was still plenty small enough that with her strength stat, lifting him was a breeze.

"They are my new Genin team. Say hello to Aiko, Hikaru and Tachiko." Naruto gave her a curious look, since she'd made it no secret how she didn't plan to have a Genin team. "Don't start, I honestly didn't plan on this in secret. You wouldn't want Akana-baasan to hear you broke her cake limit, now would you?" The boy turned pretty pale at that, shaking his head frantically. "Good. We're having...hmm, actually, I don't know what to make. Any of you have any preferences, allergies, any of that stuff?"

The three Genin shook their heads, so she looked at Naruto again. "Well, maybe Ra-" Akari narrowed her eyes. "-...ribs? You haven't made those chip things for a while either, maybe we could have those again?" Nodding, she ruffled his hair, setting him down. It was then that her Genin decided to pipe up. Or rather, Aiko decided to, since Tachiko was busy looking at all the stuff in Akari's apartment, and Hikaru was being his timid self.

He pointed at the hand that ruffled Naruto's hair, which was the same soft orange as before. "Akari-sensei, how did you do that thing with your hand? I haven't ever seen a shinobi with such a cool hand!" Akari smirked, lifting her Shadow Hand for him to look at closer.

"Well my adorable little Genin, this is my own invention, the Kage no Te Fuinjutsu. It uses a pre-existing Jutsu, but only takes a select portion of it, forming a corporeal hand. It's orange because I am dual-natured between Fire and Lightning, their respective colours merging together to become Orange. Since that's Naruto's favourite colour, I decided against Hengeing it. The white veins though...nobody knows, it's something only I have according to my brother."

Tachiko chose this moment to pipe in. "So Sei-sensei is your brother?" Akari nodded. "Do you think you could maybe ask him if he's...y'know, available?" Akari raised an eyebrow at the young Genin. Tachiko was twelve, while her brother was like...19 or 20 at least. She didn't actually remember his age, another thing her mind betrayed her on, but that was definitely a bit much for an age-gap. Fortunately, Tachiko cleared things up. "Not for me, for my sister. She worked with him a few times and apparently got the hots for him, but she never got the chance to talk to him, so she decided to use me to keep an eye on him until she was ready to make her moves on him."

The next half an hour was filled with Tachiko and Akari chatting about Tachiko's sister and Sei, their conversation moving to the kitchen where Akari could begin preparing food. Kurama hopped off her shoulders when she went in, for two reasons. Firstly so he could keep an eye on Naruto and the two Genin, make sure they didn't do anything mischievous whilst Akari was busy. But more importantly, so he wouldn't shed any hair into the food she was making.

Thanks to the fact his form was made of Chakra, he only shed hair which would dissipate after maybe an hour, but that still meant strands of hair in the food, and nobody wanted that, so he left the kitchen, a stick of Dango planted between his jaws thanks to Akari's outstretched hand as he left. She would never let it be said she let him go without snacks.

Besides, Dango was super easy to make, since it was basically just rice flour, sugar, water and flavouring. Granted, she then added a billion other things and turned her Dango into utter monsters of culinary awesomeness, but that meant they tasted way better...even if she did troll a few people by adding a ton of chilli powder to a few batches then served them as normally as ever.

The reactions were great.

* * *

"Yahoo!"

Akari smirked up at Naruto from her place leaning against the doorframe, watching as he hung from the ceiling fan in his room, Aiko pushing it round and round as fast as he could, whilst Hikaru watched with his hands covering his eyes, awaiting...exactly what happened, as Naruto's grip finally failed him, sending him flying feetfirst into Aiko's face. The pair then flew backwards where Akari was waiting to grab them but by their collars. "Kaa-san, can we do that again?!" Naruto yelled.

She gave him a smile, then turned her gaze onto Aiko. "Sorry cub, but I don't think so. Now Aiko-kun, I believe I made it clear that if you do something stupid like say...spin my son around as he dangles from a ceiling fan, I'll hurt you?" The boy nodded quickly, his eyes wide. "Well, I sure do hope your memory is alright, since it appears as though you'd forgotten such a thing." She looked over at the other Genin in the room. "Hikaru-kun, I know Aiko can be a bit boisterous, but you need to know when you should either put your foot down on his antics, or come and get me to cuff him one." Tachiko leaned around the doorframe at that moment, taking in the scene then looking at Akari, who just gestured at the three boys. "Hey, you're the female team-mate, this is your problem."

Or at least that was how Akari saw it, since pretty much all Konoha teams had two boys and one girl, presumably so she could balance the two stupider members of the team out. Her own team of course defied that convention, just like pretty much everyone other typical Konoha team attribute, by having two guys to one guy. "Why do I have to deal with it? You're our Jonin-sensei."

"Because don't forget that I won't be holding the team together myself. You three have to get used to dealing with each other's crap. You've already got tactics down just fine, but you need to be able to happily live with each other for days, weeks, maybe even months when out on long-term missions." Akari tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, using that to cover her momentary lapse as she remembered Nui and Shichu. "Not that that'll be happening for a while. Since we're at peacetime, you lot don't get to skip what is arguably the worst part of any Genin's existence..." She paused for emphasis. "...D-rank missions."

The three Genin looked between each other in confusion. "Uhh, Sensei, what are D-rank missions?" Tachiko asked.

"Very good question...I honestly don't know much about them, because you're looking at the only Jonin in all of Konoha to have never, ever, done a D-rank mission. So this will be a bit of a learning experience for us all. I know what the missions detail, but I can't really help you, since I don't know what to do either, this'll be fun." Akari shrugged, leaving the room with Aiko and Naruto still in her grasp. "Now then...you little mister-" She looked at Naruto. "-aren't allowed to do that again. If I catch you doing it...no ramen for a month." His wide-eyed expression told Akari that he'd taken it to heart, that was good. "And you...hmm, I don't know you well enough to think of a good punishment, so I'll let you wallow in fear for a few days until I figure something out." She then released the collars she was holding, both boys falling to the floor unprepared.

As she left, she put at arm up, letting Kurama climb down from the shelf he was sat on. "Thanks for warning me boo, wouldn't want Naruto flying out the window." She plucked another stick of Dango from her inventory, frowning as she gave it to him. "Hmm, gonna need to make more soon, running a little low." Kurama made an uninterested noise, yelping when Akari jabbed him. "Or maybe one fox should cut back on pinching them all."

**"It's not my fault human food is so delicious!"**

* * *

Akari blew on her food, watching each of the Genin as they eyed their plates curiously.

Naruto had decided it, so they were having ribs and chips, a pretty standard meal...by her old world standards. In the new world, a lot of the stuff she made had never been seen before, so she decided that she'd make as much random food as possible. Ribs and chips, burgers, kebabs, hot dogs, everything she could think of, Naruto was her willing taste-test subject, since he always seemed to like her food.

Of course, that meant that when other people like Anko tried it, they'd practically beg to know where Akari got the recipe. It was great telling them that they weren't something that could be found. Of course, she didn't outright lie and claim it as her own food, but keeping it a secret wasn't hard since it was literally from another world. And now her three Genin were about to take their first bites.

She hadn't quite gotten a good flavour of barbecue sauce, at least for her tastes, so she was instead using a glaze made from things like ginger, soy, honey, rice wine, sweet chilli sauce and a few other ingredients, which made it smell pretty heavenly. She was waiting to take a bite, since Aiko, being his normal self, plucked one rib from his rack and brandished it, then took the entire strip of meat from the side of the bone, chewing it up and swallowing. "Well, how is it?" Tachiko asked him.

The boy blinked, then looked down at the ribs on his plate and snatched another one, whilst Akari hid her smile behind a glass of water. "It's...so...good! You've got to try this!" He thrust the rib in his hand out towards Tachiko, who just looked down at her own plate, which had a rack of ribs as well. "Oh, right..." Aiko muttered, scratching his head, before bouncing right back and devouring several more strips of meat in the time it took Tachiko and Hikaru to each eat one piece of meat. "Sensei, it's official, you're cooking all the meals while we're on missions!"

Akari rolled her eyes. It was pretty likely she'd have to do that even if her food was deemed unacceptable, since it wasn't like the Academy actually taught them how to pitch a tent or cook on a campfire, that was stuff she had to teach them. Why, she had no idea, it seemed stupid, but that was how the Academy worked. "Well, good thing I like cooking then. Though..." She held her hand up, a small plate of steaming spaghetti on it. "-with how much food I have stashed away, I doubt I'll ever have to cook something when on mission."

Her Genin were all a little too distracted staring at her hand to actually speak. "Kaa-san, I think you've broken them." Naruto muttered, poking Aiko's cheek with his finger. Akari just shrugged, making the food disappear into her inventory again.

"Well, if that broke them, they wouldn't last around me."

* * *

"Team 3, fail."

Akari folded her arms, watching the other Jonin announce that their teams failed or passed. Why she couldn't have just told the Hokage they passed then left she didn't know, but now she was forced to stand there waiting as each Jonin spoke, until it finally came to her team. "Team 13, pass." She muttered, busy talking to Kurama about what her team was getting up to in her absence, since she'd asked the three to look after Naruto while she went to report the formation of their team.

She didn't miss how almost all the ambient noise in the room from people shuffling stopped on her announcement. "Are you sure Akari-san?" Hiruzen asked, his eyes watching hers closely. She tipped her head, then nodded.

"Yeah, they surpassed my expectations, they'll make a good team." Nodding, Hiruzen accepted her words for what they were, continuing down the rest of the Jonin as Akari restarted her conversation with Kurama. She felt the Jonin next to her elbow her lightly, getting her attention away from Kurama. She looked upwards at the man and raised an eyebrow, only to see he wasn't even looking at her

Evidently whatever he had to say wasn't worth actually speaking to her. Probably some stupid question about whether her team was ready, leaving unspoken the fact she was sixteen. Just because she was young didn't mean she couldn't corral a team with the best of them. Or at least that was what she assumed he was going to say. For all she knew he wanted to ask her what kind of hair products she used. Granted, less likely, but still possible! Or he might have just bumped her by accident, infinite possibilities!

She gave him another brief look over before shrugging to herself and looking out the window, Kurama talking in her head about how Aiko and Naruto had already formed a fast friendship, which was unsurprising. What was more surprising was that Tachiko seemed to have little concept or perhaps simple care for boundaries, seeing as she was currently lazing around in Akari's room. She wasn't doing anything in particular, but most people wouldn't go into their bedroom like that, even with permission to go anywhere in the apartment while she was busy.

Just another thing to deal with, since the meeting seemed to be over, with all the Jonin filing out of the room. Akari made to join them...-"Akari-san, a moment please." -but of course Hiruzen had to stop her. She stepped out of the way of the other Jonin, watching the mall leave them looking at the Hokage. "Take a seat please." He gestured at the chair in front of his desk. "I must say, I didn't expect you to actually pass your first team."

Akari took the seat, since if she didn't, Hiruzen would just wait for her to sit down, he was way more patient than her. "I didn't think I'd be taking one either. But...they surprised me." She shrugged. "I mean, I changed the test a little, and they just...kinda ignored the whole idea of being split apart and made to fight amongst themselves for the chance to pass. They were all more than happy to go back to the Academy, or even enter the Genin Corps, because it meant they'd be together as a team. They already knew they'd work well together, so really it was just a question of getting the bell, which they did."

Akari dangled the destroyed bell from her hand. "I see. So, you really believe you'll be able to handle Team 13?" Akari thought it over for a brief moment, then nodded. "Hm, very well. Bring your team here to my office for personal assignment come Monday morning." Akari tilted her head, confused. It was Thursday. Before she could voice her confusion, the old Kage clarified. "You can take Friday and the weekend to make sure any growing pains have been worked out. Even if they appear to click, I'm sure that there will be some ideology clashes in the near future."

Akari frowned, but nodded all the same. "Alright."

* * *

**"Akari, you should probably try to get home soon, Aiko seems interested in finding a secret of yours, just so he could say he knew one."**

Akari sighed and doubled her pace. There wasn't really anything she cared much about...or at least, that Aiko could find out. In her life, there were maybe three secrets she wanted to keep. Firstly, the Game, obviously. Second, for the time being at least, her second Mangekyo ability. And finally, Naruto's parentage. As Danzo helpfully pointed out, she wasn't infallible, nor could she be everywhere at once.

Her seals would have protected him, but apparently one of those ROOT agents managed to convince the four-year-old to open the seals. Naruto, naive as he was, assumed she wouldn't want to be annoyed by the alarm, so he turned it off...he knew better now. But it was a good lesson for her to learn, that no matter how hard she tried to protect someone, there was always the chance everything would go wrong anyway. That was why she protected Naruto, but she also wanted him to be able to protect himself.

When he got to a Chunin-level, Akari would be confident enough in his ability to protect himself that he would be able to know about his own father. Heck, he could scream his parentage from the rooftops if he wanted, as long as he was strong enough to deal with the aftermath, or at least strong enough to get to her. He of course already knew his mother was Kushina, though he wasn't allowed to spread that information. Anybody even remotely observant knew that Kushina and Minato were close, so if it came out that Naruto was Kushina's son...things would go badly.

It, unfortunately, was public knowledge that Naruto was an Uzumaki, though thanks to his fathers hair and his birthmark whiskers, he wasn't really attributable to Kushina's fiery red hair and whiskerless face. But that meant he was already a valuable...'asset' to whichever village had him, since he was one of the last few, perhaps the last in general, Uzumaki.

Akari landed on the walkway of her apartment building, quickly brushing herself off before unlocking the door, then peering inside silently. Nobody was in the living room or kitchen, which left only a few places they could be. She slipped through then shut the door behind her, walking across the apartment then dow nthe short hall to her room, placing her head against the door and hearing the four of them quietly talking.

She walked up the wall and peered through the small gap in the door, but couldn't really see enough, it was too thin. Deciding to just throw a torch to the whole thing, she dropped back to the floor and flung the door open, then had to cover her mouth in laughter.

Aiko was currently sat tied up on Akari's bed next to Hikaru, who looked rather uncomfortable at the whole situation. Tachiko was stood beside Akari's wardrobe with her arms crossed and tapping her foot, all but glaring at Aiko. Naruto was just stood beside Tachiko looking confused. "So, who wants to say what happened first?" Akari spoke with an amused tone, making it clear she really didn't care what happened.

Unsurprisingly, Aiko tried to speak first, though Tachiko's firm voice cut past his. "He tried to mess with the seal on that safe. I was all for him trying, but I didn't want us to get into serious trouble." Akari scratched her neck, looking at her safe with a frown. She was going to have to change a lot of her seals, since it had a fail-safe which would electrocute anyone trying to seriously interfere with any functionality in the seal who didn't have the key.

Not a lethal dose for a Chunin or Jonin, but it could have killed a Genin if they were susceptible to electricity. "It's a good thing you stopped him..." Akari reached out at the safe and tripped one of the fail-safes, letting the Lightning Chakra in the seal zap out towards her hand. She grit her teeth and took the damage of the lightning, 2500 hitpoints gone instantly. "...since that would have probably killed him. I have a secondary Lightning nature, so I can just take it, but since we don't know your natures, I have no idea if that'd kill you or not."

Aiko was staring at Akari's arm, Tachiko looked pretty smug at having possibly saved his life, and Hikaru joined Aiko in staring. "Sensei...your arm." Aiko mumbled, drawing everyone's attention to Akari's right arm. There were bands of red lightning currently coiling around her arm, shooting here and there in erratic patterns. Akari blinked, then pushed a little Chakra through her arm, watching the red lightning brighten as it devoured her Chakra the instant it left her Tenketsu, then after a few moments, settled back around her arm in tight coils.

"Oh...well, that's new."

* * *

**I KNEW there was something I forgot.**

**When Akari released that lightning-infused Rasengan-like technique, she was left with Lichtenberg marks, but more importantly, there was red lightning sparking across her skin. When she got zapped by her safe-seal, it basically, for lack of a better word, woke up that ability.**

**Akari will experiment more with that next chapter, but...I really hope that's the last thing I forgot to do. If there's something else, my head is gonna meet my desk. Next chapter will also be the first mission that Team 13/Team Akari take on. Yay for D-ranks!**

**...And yes, I know Akari could have used her left arm, which would have just taken the damage since it's made of nothing but Chakra, but this is Akari we're talking about, she just does whatever she wants. Like giving an example by electrocuting herself with her seal, just for emphasis.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 78**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 8945/78,000**

**To Next Level: 69,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**

_**5 Skill Points Available**_


	36. Chapter 36

**Two chapters in two days? What sorcery is this?!**

**I did in fact forget something, so I wrapped that up at the start of this chapter.**

**And yes, the pacing has slowed down quite a bit. I may have started too many things. After Team 13 is fully established, we'll be making the jump towards maybe two years before Canon Naruto.**

**...Maybe...before chapter 40 at the very least.**

_**Chapter 36**_

* * *

"Oh, what's this?"

Akari sat up on her bed, having been poking at menus, reorganizing her inventory so she could do more sleight-of-hand tricks using it, and generally looking through her stuff. She clicked the tab she'd seen, which was marked as 'achievements', wincing when her eyes were covered in a rather glaring golden colour. She bit her lip and bore the pain until the light receded, revealing a list of gold-bordered achievements. "Huh, cool."

She looked at the first one...walk 1000 steps. That was pretty dumb, she was hoping the achievements would actually be challenges. Cook one food item, kill one enemy, the achievements were all incredibly simple. Or at least, the first list of them were. She mentally pointed at one and dragged it upwards, directing the menu to scroll downwards. She scanned through the achievements, then scrolled again, coming to a stop at an achievement bordered by blue, focusing on the achievement which made it open.

**Achievement Earned - Pet Tamer!**

**Unlocked by taming one pet.**

As she stared intently at it, trying to figure out why it had a different outline, a new menu opened up in front of her eyes.

**Redeem Rewards? (Y/N)**

Akari focused on the yes option, which after a moment led to another menu being opened.

**Title Earned - Pet Tamer - 25% chance to dissuade animals from attacking during encounter.**

"Huh." Akari muttered, re-reading the title. She then went back a menu and up her achievements, clicking on one of them using her eyes. It opened up, revealing another redeem rewards option. "Oh for fuck sake." It was annoying that the Entity wasn't available, because if he was, she was going to curse his ass out for not mentioning this little tidbit. he did make mention of a bunch of achievements that weren't actually triggered, but why he didn't tell her they had rewards tied to them was anyone's guess. Maybe he was just as forgetful as she was?

It didn't matter though, since Akari focused on the yes option of the achievement she'd unlocked, a sword dropping out of thin air in front of her and bouncing on her bed. She observed it, but frowned. It was a totally normal blade, it had a fancy-looking hilt, but in general, the Kusanagi would outmatch it in almost every way. She scrolled up to the very top option and focused on it, selecting that one and accepting it as well. That time, she watched a pile of Ryo drop onto her bed beside the sword. According to the menu, it was ten-thousand Ryo.

Shrugging, she shoved them both in her inventory, then started scrolling through all the achievements, occasionally opening one out of curiosity. Journeyman Traveller was one of them, it was apparently several steps up from the achievement for walking 1000 steps. She selected it, and her head then immediately felt like it'd been split in half. Cursing, she closed one eye and leaned into her hand, focusing on the pressure of her hand against her face to wait until the pain went away, which it did after only a few moments. She opened her eye again and looked at the reward. "Oh fuck you game."

**Achievement Earned - Journeyman Traveller**

**Unlocked by travelling 10,000km**

**Reward earned - Fast-travel System unlocked**

That was nice and all, but the Hiraishin was pretty much a fast-travel system in itself, she had no real need for one.

...Yes, she hadn't actually managed to use the damn thing properly, and it always left her at minimum on her knees from nausea when she arrived, but it was still a fast-travel system. Sighing, she just took it for what it was, searching the other achievements for anything useful. Out of everything, only a few stood out to her, the most useful being her Field Medic achievements, which apparently were in a series of unlocks. Her achievement was ranked at ten, which was possibly the highest. She accepted the reward, getting a scroll plopped in front of her by the system, which she examined.

**Scroll of Mastery - Mystical Palm no Jutsu**

**When used, unlocked Master-level Mystical Palm no Jutsu, alongside all lower ranks of Jutsu**

That one was rather useful, since after unlocking the Adept level of Mystical Palm, she'd plateau'd in her progress. Probably had something to do with the fact she wasn't healing people nearly as much, nor did she often need to heal herself. She made to use the scroll, then as an afterthought turned on her Sharingan and looked the scroll over both sides briefly before using it.

**Mystical Palm technique/Master - You have become proficient enough with your healing Jutsu to be regarded as a master****. Usage: 200CP/s. Heal-rate - 500HP/s. ****Cannot be levelled further.**** Can still use inferior versions after unlock****ing improved variant.**

Beneath that, the other variants of Mystical Palm were unlocked, but Akari was busy staring at the heal-rate of her new Jutsu. If it was following convention, she should have had a heal-rate of 200/s, 1CP per HP. But instead, when she reached Master-level, she got a big bump in her heal-rate...not that she was complaining, that was great. It meant she could turn 200 Chakra into 500 HP. Considering the size of her Chakra Pool, she would be able to use that to keep herself alive permanently even against her strongest poison.

That was going to make levelling her poison resistance a cinch.

* * *

"Alright cubs, gather around, I've got something to tell ya all."

Her Genin all looked at her, sitting down cross-legged and staring at her. "Kurama, come here please." She extended an arm, watching him drop from a shelf up above her, taking a brief moment to consider the shelves. She'd built them in a day, just for Kurama to use. A bunch of solid boards just screwed into various places on the walls, all forming a giant network of planks for Kurama to use. It kept him off the floor, up above where he could hop onto unsuspecting mortals, or mostly so Naruto wouldn't step on his tail by accident. "Now, I won't explain this, I'll leave it up to...well..."

**"Me."** Kurama spoke audibly, surprising the three Genin with his voice. He yipped his amusement, turning his head to face Akari. **"You were right...that is funny."** Her Genin were still staring at the fox with wide eyes. **"Now, Akari had to ask your Hokage for permission to tell you this, so don't think she isn't sticking her neck out to tell you this, or rather, for me to tell you this. But, rejoice, for you are in the glorio-"** Akari held his mouth shut with her hand, rolling her eyes at him.

"Less theatricality next time Kurama. Now then cubs, who here knows about the Kyuubi?" The Genin all looked pretty confused by the question. "Oh whatever. Basically, he can't actually die, just be dispersed into Chakra which would reform over a period of maybe...100 years or so. So, he was sealed inside Uzumaki Mito by the first Hokage. Then, when she was nearly dead from simple old age, he was passed on to Uzumaki Kushina. When Kushina was about to give birth, something happened, and the Kyuubi was released."

She could see the three Genin looked a bit uncomfortable, which considering they were all maybe eight years old when the Kyuubi attacked, meant they were probably remembering the attack. "Luckily, the Yondaime was an adept at Fuinjutsu, much like myself. He managed to 'vanquish the beast.' But here's where the real story differs from what you know. Recall that the Kyuubi can't die. So how did he guarantee that the Kyuubi wouldn't just attack again when he reformed? He did the same thing that Senju Hashirama did, he sealed the Kyuubi inside of somebody."

Hikaru made the connection first. "So, Naruto has the Kyuubi sealed inside of him?" Not quite the right connection, but reasonable. Each host for Kurama had been an Uzumaki, Mito and Kushina, so it stood to reason that Naruto would be the next host. His birthmark whiskers, a by-product of being beside Kurama's chakra for so long when he was in Kushina's womb, didn't help him. But Akari shook her head.

"No, but close. If it helps, I'm also extremely adept at Fuinjutsu. Plus, who do I hang out with a lot?" She scratched Kurama's head for emphasis, watching the dawning realization come across each Genin's face. "Yup, that's right, you're talking to the Jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox. Though he prefers to be called Kurama, he didn't actually choose to attack Konoha, and he likes Dango, as I'm sure you've seen." It had become apparent to her that her Genin didn't actually know, despite it being public knowledge, that Akari was the nine-tails Jinchuriki. Then again, that kind of info, whilst 'public knowledge', was actually only something that a Shinobi could get first-hand access to. The populace weren't restricted from knowing however, so it spread through word-of-mouth.

It was probably best then to inform them in a vaguely-controlled scenario, that way they wouldn't freak out during a mission. "So, you hold the nine-tailed fox?" Akari grinned, lifting Kurama off her shoulders and into her arms for emphasis.

"Well, I guess you could say I am literally holding the nine-tailed fox right now. Honestly, did you not wonder why Kurama here had nine tails?" Tachiko facepalmed, while Aiko and Hikaru both peered at Kurama, both making remarks about his tails. "Wow...did I just get the most unobservant bunch of Genin, or are all Genin that bad at noticing stuff?"

Tachiko cut in. "To be fair Sensei, I thought it was just a coincidence. I mean, isn't the nine-tailed fox meant to be colossal? I know a few weeks ago he appeared in the middle of Konoha beside the ho...spital...Sensei, did that have something to do with you?" Akari grimaced, holding up her arm.

"Yeah, that happened. A bunch of other stuff as well, but that was the most major thing that I can actually tell you. The rest is S-class, if you want to know more, go get the Hokage's hat, then you can read all the S-ranked info on me. So, you three cool? No outstanding grudges against Kurama here for something he had no control over?" The three Genin shook their heads, none of them had actually lost anybody they knew to the attack, or at least they didn't care enough about them to hold a grudge against Kurama.

Well, aside from Tachiko, but as she looked at the girl, she saw...a surprisingly high amount of maturity there. She looked at Kurama, but she didn't look at him with even disguised hate. Instead, it was almost as though she was just...sad to look at him. Akari made a mental note of it which she near-instantly forgot, brushing off her hands as she stood up.

"So, who wants some food?"

* * *

"Let's just keep on moving cubs."

Akari grabbed Aiko by the collar and carried him along behind her, Hikaru and Tachiko trailing along even as Aiko begged to just spend one more second looking at...whatever it was he was staring at. "But Sensei, they had a figure of you!" Akari stalled, turning to look back at the shop. She looked towards Hikaru and Tachiko, ignoring Aiko's yells about how he totally saw her.

"I didn't see anything Sensei, but I wasn't looking. Aiko isn't really good at lying, so I doubt he's just winding you up." Ever the voice of reason, Tachiko chimed in her own experience and perspective on the situation, getting a smile as thanks. She looked at Kurama, but he just shrugged at her. Deciding to just bite the bullet, she dropped Aiko and walked back to the shop, activating her Sharingan so she could easily sweep her gaze across the shop and...

"Are you fucking kidding me Aiko?" She spoke, turning her crimson gaze on Aiko. "If you think that looks like me, you clearly need to get your eyes checked. In fact, would you like an exam now?" Akari wreathed her hands in green medical Chakra, but the look on her face was anything but doctorly. The closest figure Akari saw to herself was a fucking Geisha model.

Not to say that the Geisha that worked in the Capital and other places weren't awesome, they were. But she was most definitely not one of them. The thought of sitting around all day playing instruments, or dancing and singing...especially in a Kimono, it just wasn't something she thought herself even remotely attributable to. "But Sensei, she even-mph!" Tachiko cleverly slapped her hand over Aiko's mouth before he could start digging any more of a hole for himself.

Shaking her head, Akari just began walking down the road again. "Kami forbid we make it to the tower without incident. Now then, if we manage to get the last...five-hundred meters without any of you three making us stop for something, I'll make ribs again. If we have to stop, I promise that the first opportunity I get, your food will be so filled with chilli powder you won't be able to look at spicy food again without wincing."

She looked over her Genin, satisfied that her point had been made.

* * *

The rest of the journey to the tower passed uneventfully.

As they climbed the stairs to the Hokage's Office though, the air was filled with Aiko's questioning voice, asking what they'd be doing first. Fighting bandits? Guarding Daimyos? Delivering important documents? And truth be told, whilst Akari knew that D-rank missions were the absolute dregs of missions, since she'd never undertaken one before, she didn't quite know exactly what her three Genin were going to get up to.

Hell, she'd kept her record for having never done a D-rank for the entire time she'd been a Kunoichi, there was no reason to do one now that she was a Jonin. She muttered another unconvinced answer to Aiko's questions, audibly sighing when they reached the Hokage's floor. She ushered the three Genin towards his door with a nod to the new secretary.

Apparently the old one had said something about someone and gotten removed as a result. Probably caught insulting the Daimyo or someone well-placed in political circles by an Inuzuka, they had deceptively good hearing. The secretary gave a curious wave back, watching her corral the Genin towards the Hokage's office. "Hey there, the Hokage told me to bring my team to receive a mission directly from him." She dropped the bombshell.

Her Genin didn't actually know they were going directly to the Hokage, they assumed that they were just getting a mission from the Mission Office, which Akari did nothing to dissuade. She never outright said they were or weren't doing something, she just gave noncommittal answers to their questions until they gave up. "T-the Hokage?" Hikaru stuttered, staring at the deceptive oaken doors behind which the strongest Shinobi in the village worked.

Aiko and Tachiko were equally surprised, though whilst Hikaru stared at the door, the other two Genin stared at their Sensei. "Akari-sensei, are we really going to see the Hokage?" Aiko asked, audibly subdued compared to before. it was then that Akari realized that she'd been way too acclimatized to knowing the Hokage over the past years. Then again, she'd practically lived with Minato when she was guarding Kushina, so she'd had a lot of time spent around the Yondaime.

"Well, normally no, we'd go to the mission office and get our missions there, but the Hokage explicitly told me to bring you three along to pick up our mission from him. Don't ask why, because I don't know either. I never really had a typical...'Geninhood' I guess, so I don't know if he normally does this or not." Tachiko nodded at Akari, accepting the information easily. Aiko...was less calm.

"Ehh?! We're seeing the Hokage on our first day for our first mission? But what if we screw up? Oh but he's the Hokage so he'd be fine with it! Oh but what if it's a super-important mission like saving stranded nin from a friendly village, or-or-mph!" Akari closed her eyes.

"Thank you Tachiko. Now, the three of you. I want you to picture the Hokage. Now, you need to remove any ideas of him being unreachable, untouchable and immutable. He's a man, just like I am a teen, she-" Akari waved a hand at the bewildered secretary. "-is a woman, or the ANBU currently mocking us all are all human." The three Genin all looked around warily, though only Akari could see where the ANBU were, if she turned on her Sharingan on that was.

Since she didn't really want to annoy them, she let them keep their stealth, happy in the knowledge she probably made at least one of them uncomfortable. "The point is, the Hokage is human, and he has feelings just like us. I'm sure he'd love to meet you all, alongside every single resident of Konoha, but the village is a little big for that I think. So maybe this is him simply wanting to know who he's entrusting Konoha's defence to?"

Though Hikaru looked a little uncomfortable still, Aiko was back to his normal self just fine. "I see!" he punched his fist into his palm. "Then let's not keep him waitin-urk!" Akari snatched his collar before he could throw the doors open, though her gaze was on Hikaru.

"...I'm okay Sensei, it's just...d-daunting." Akari sighed, ruffling his hair lightly. "S-sensei?"

Akari kept her grasp on Aiko even as she moved, kneeling down only a little so she could properly see Hikaru's face. "Hikaru, you know what you signed up for becoming a Shinobi, right?" The boy gave her a nod. "Then you know one day you're going to have to break that shell around yourself, yeah?" He gave another, albeit shakier, nod. "Then what's better than learning that the Hokage is far easier to meet than ya think?"

Akari ignored her slight accent that appeared, putting her hand out for him to take. It took him a few seconds, but he did, firming himself up as much as possible. "Now then, let's not keep him waiting." With that, Akari released Aiko's collar and Hikaru's hand, just for good measure mussing Tachiko's hair up a tiny bit, smirking when the girl squeaked in displeasure. She pushed the door open and gave a wave to the Hokage. "Hey there Hokage-sama, I brought Team 13 along!"

The old man looked up from his paperwork, smiled genially at the three Genin, then gave Akari a look, making her blink. "Give me a moment to finish this page Akari-san, then I'll be right with you." Shrugging, Akari wandered over to the chairs in front of his desk, four of them, possibly set up just for this, or perhaps the old Kage planned to meet every team which passed, she just didn't know.

It only took him maybe a minute to finish up, during which her Genin all sat down and started looking around the room like lost ducklings. It was honestly quite amusing, and served as another reminder that most residents in Konoha didn't visit the Hokage nearly as often as she did. Hiruzen wrapped up what he was writing and faced her Genin. "Now, firstly, well done you three for convincing not just each other to work together, but also your new Sensei." Akari rolled her eyes. "Don't play it off Akari-san, you know you had no intentions of accepting a team."

She shrugged unrepentantly. "And here we are none-the-less. But, if I'm honest? I don't think I made a mistake in the slightest." Her three Genin all averted their gazes simultaneously. "Aww, are you all embarrassed?" Aiko locked his eyes with her, his mouth open to yell something, but then he looked towards Hiruzen and shut his mouth, grumbling something quietly.

Taking a puff from his pipe, Hiruzen blew the smoke up into the air. "You three should raise your gazes." The three Genin did so, all letting out varying sounds of surprise as Hiruzen made his smoke weave around itself in beautifully dazzling flows. Sure, he was proficient in all Ninjutsu natures, but that didn't mean he should just show off, she didn't have nearly that level of mastery over wind. After her encounter with Orochimaru, she tried to manipulate wind as she did her Lightning, but every time she tried, it violently ripped against her control, it was nigh-impossible to use, for her at least. "If you keep your gazes away, you'll never see what lies right above your heads."

He not-so-subtly made the smoke drift over and around Akari. "Yeah yeah, can we get on with this please Hokage-sama? And not destroy my carefully-built illusion of how you aren't all-powerful?" The old man chuckled, releasing his control over the wind, which allowed the pipe smoke to dissipate into nothingness.

"Yes, let us." He pulled out some documents from his desk. "Here are the applicable D-rank missions for your team today." The three Genin all leaned forwards to try and read the pages, though considering how Konoha mission files were done, they wouldn't make heads or tails of it. "We have..." Akari snorted when she read the top option. "Ahh, I see you've spotted the mission Akari."

She covered her mouth, her chest heaving with unreleased laughter. After a few seconds, she got herself under control. "Ye-yeah...oh god, that's the kind of stuff I avoided?" The Hokage nodded solemnly. "I never thought I'd say this, but thank Kami for the war." Though his eyes hardened a little, he let a small smile creep onto his lips at her honest words. "Kits, you are most certainly on your own for these. I'm gonna have to make a bunch of Dango for this."

"Now, as I was saying, your options are...fence-painting, gardening, baby-sitting...oh, here's one to catch Tora." The man shuffled some of the pages to the side, ignoring the growing looks of disbelief on the three assembled Genin's faces. "Ahh, we have one here to help a farmer re-sow his crops. The Nara could do with a few extra hands to help corral a herd of deer. Ahh, and the Inuzuka need some strong Genin to walk their dogs." He looked up with a grandfatherly smile. Surprisingly, it was Hikaru that spoke.

"You've got to be kidding..."

* * *

"This sucks!"

Akari smirked around her stick, the Dango that was skewed atop it having been happily devoured already. "Put your back into it!" She chirped down at Aiko, who was currently dragging a wheelbarrow around. The mission they'd finally decided on, after realizing that Hiruzen wasn't actually jerking their chains around, was the one helping a farmer re-sow his crops.

Personally she would have taken the Nara herd-corralling one, since it sounded like a pretty amazing experience being so close to the Nara deer, but since she wasn't going to do anything to help, she didn't get a say in which mission they chose. Besides, if there were three of them deciding, it meant there couldn't be a two-way tie. If she added her two cents, she would likely end up tying the results.

Akari looked around the field. Tachiko was currently battling with a stubborn root, Hikaru was happily, if silently, running lines with a hoe, digging furrows into the dirt ready for seeds. Deciding that her job could be handled by a Shadow Clone, she left one in her place. It didn't look too happy, but since she was actually intending to do something important, the clone let it slide, settling down where she was sat atop the wall around the farm.

That left her available to slip away from her Genin, though she left Kurama with her clone, smiling when her clone immediately scratched between his ears as he clambered on her shoulders. Akari shunshin'd away just to make sure nobody saw her leaving, then put a quick Henge over herself, changing her appearance entirely. She already had a location in mind, and with Kurama keeping her updated on how far her Genin had gone since she left, she'd be able to make it back in time happily.

It only took maybe ten minutes of high-speed roof traversal to reach her destination, her usual training ground haunt. When she arrived, she dropped her Henge, sighing as she did so., since being under a Henge always felt weird, like wearing a skintight suit or something. Akari quickly checked around, making sure nobody was in the training grounds, then sat down beside a tree, closing her eyes.

Today, she wanted to figure out what the fuck happened when she tripped the fail-safe on her seal. She didn't know a single Jutsu that had red lightning, not one. She'd never encountered anybody who had it, so it fell to her to figure out what the fuck was going on. She tried channelling Raiton Chakra into her arm, yelping in surprise when the red lightning suddenly appeared around her arm.

She observed it with her Sharingan, watching it closely as it dissipated away into nothingness after a few seconds. As the last flicker disappeared, her system pinged her with an alert, one she opened immediately.

**Affinity Modified - Lightning Release - Primary**

**(Note - this will not affect any other affinities)**

"Woah...that's broken as shit." Akari mumbled. "Why the fuck is it RED THOUGH?!" She yelled at her screen, closing the menu then closing her eyes, flopping down to the floor. So, she now had two affinities that were primary. That probably meant that if she could somehow get her hands on a water, earth or wind affinity, she could then 'buff' it to be a primary affinity.

She toyed around with some Fire Chakra for a moment, even if she didn't really like using it too much. Since it was her primary affinity, direct nature manipulation was a cinch for her. She then applied the same technique to her Lightning Chakra, and though it was red, it still responded to her control, bouncing between her fingers, she could even bounce it off her Shadow Hand, thanks to the artificial Tenketsu embedded in the hand. "Wait, hold on a second..." Akari formed the hand seals for the Electromagnetic Murder Jutsu, pressing her hands outwards and releasing a wave of crimson lightning which obliterated the tree she targetted.

Akari quirked her mouth to the side. Aside from it being crimson for some reason, it didn't seem too different. Sure, she now had two primary natures, that was pretty powerful, but it didn't do more damage or use less Chakra, so other than being able to more effectively control Lightning Chakra directly, she didn't see a...difference. "Hey Kurama?"

The fox mumbled a response, he was probably getting pets from her clone. "You remember that giant ball of lightning I used with your Chakra, the one that made my hand spark red?" The fox made an affirmative noise, more attentive now. "Well, I just did some experimenting, but I just realized something. You mind pushing a bit of Chakra into my system? Only enough for a few Jutsu?"

**"Sure, but I don't need to tell you to be careful, right? I don't want another repeat of what happened before."** As he spoke, he pushed his Chakra into her coils, suffusing her network with potent Bijuu Chakra. Grinning, Akari took control over the small amount of Chakra, forcing it through her coils which turned it into Lightning-natured Chakra. She then pushed it towards her right hand, firing a bolt of lightning from her hand twice the size it typically would be, twisting through the air at the speed of light to shatter the tree she fired at, leaving a crater in the surface of the tree.

That bolt was just as red as the other, the one fueled by her own Chakra, the only difference being that as Kurama's Chakra was so much more condensed than hers, it doubled the size of the bolt, despite being the same amount of Chakra that she had used. "Alright, this could work..." Akari fired off a few more Raiton Jutsu, both with and without Kurama's Chakra backing her up, which led her to one conclusion.

Her Lightning attacks were way easier to control when fueled entirely by her own Chakra. Presumably, Kurama's Chakra wasn't responding to her as easily because it wasn't her own Chakra. She could still control it to some degree, but her own Raiton-natured Chakra she could bend around itself, into loops or twisting and winding patterns, all when it had already been expelled from her Tenketsu, much as Hiruzen controlled his smoke using simple Wind-natured Chakra. By comparison, she could redirect Kurama's Chakra to a degree, but she couldn't make it do a loop, not without a severe amount of focus.

Akari dusted her hands off and left the training area, slipping back into her Henge with only a pair of hand seals. That was one thing that had changed without her notice. Some of her Jutsu's, she could now do them with fewer hand seals. For example, the Lightning Dragon Jutsu, which typically required twelve hand seals, she somehow now knew it with only using ten seals. Or the Henge, which typically required three hand seals, she could do with only two. Checking her proficiency screen for once revealed what was going on, the previously-disjointed level 1 proficiency that had appeared having finished revealing itself while she was busy.

**Hand-seal Condensing - Condensing seals is a valuable skill for a shinobi, cutting down on formation time by using less overall hand-seals. - Level 2 - 14.3%**

She didn't quite know how she had even begun to train her proficiency in Hand-seal Condensing, perhaps it was simply from using hand seals regularly. What she did know however was that it was extremely useful being able to use a Jutsu without having to spend five minutes flipping through hand seals. She knew some masters of Jutsu could use them without using more than a single focusing hand-seal, but she honestly thought that she was flawed compared to others, since her Game required her to use every single hand-seal before her Jutsu would appear.

Apparently she could learn to condense her seals, it was just really unintuitive as to how to do such a thing. She hopped up onto a rooftop after leaving the training ground, identifying which directly the farm was in, then kicking off at a steady high-chunin pace across Konoha. She hadn't been idle in the past few weeks, getting a handle on her Agility, which meant she could now crank her natural speed up higher. If she got used to constantly using a faster speed, that would put her at a severe advantage over her enemies.

Plus, if she had this level of control over her speed when she fought her team, they would never have snuck that bell away from her. She was determined that if they ever ran that test again, those three wouldn't even get close to the damn bell. Sure, they got lucky, but that's all it'd take for an enemy-nin to slit her throat. She'd never had that happen, but she didn't want to experience it, since she wasn't sure if she'd just die from that kind of attack, owing to the fact that a slit throat would presumably qualify for being a critical hit.

She narrowly avoided a loose tile, cursing her distraction as she jumped the next gap between the buildings. It didn't really matter, since as long as she was fast enough that nobody could slip beneath her notice like that, she couldn't easily be killed. Then add her new Mystical Palm mastery she'd unlocked, and she would be a nightmare to kill. Two seconds would regenerate her enough Chakra to heal over 500 hit-points, then an extra 120 for her natural regeneration. That meant if she could break contact for maybe ten, fifteen seconds at the most, she'd be able to completely heal an injury.

Akari dropped off the rooftops as she reached the farmland her team were working on, giving a low whistle as she approached. They might not have enjoyed the work, or the fact that it wasn't nearly as exciting as they were hoping, but once her Genin got going, nothing would stop them from finishing their task. There were neat furrows in the dirt, with all the old detritus having been pulled from the ground and carted away to be disposed of, or perhaps used in some manner. All they had left to do now was re-sow the final seeds and they'd have finished the mission.

She wandered over to her Shadow Clone, hopping up on the fence just as it put Kurama down on the fence then dispersed, quickly shuffling through the clone memories before they dissipated into her mind. Nothing too interesting happened, though she had been complained at more than a little more by Aiko. Of course, her clone spent a lot of the time petting Kurama. The fox quickly clambered up her arm and over her shoulders, all in the time of a few seconds, looking to the world as if nothing changed. **"So, you find out what you wanted?"** He asked inquisitively. Akari rubbed his head with a grin.

"You could say that."

* * *

**... ****To be honest, I just did that because I think Red Lightning is cool.**

**I think next chapter is going to be a short time-skip to Team 13's first proper mission, then after one or two chapters of that, another timeskip further towards canon. That way we can get a damn move on, since even I feel a bit bored right now with this story getting a little...stagnant I suppose, being stuck in one place too long.**

**But hey, I have no idea really.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 78**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 8945/78,000**

**To Next Level: 69,055**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**

_**5 Skill Points Available**_


	37. Chapter 37

**I re-did the ending of Chapter 36, you may want to go read that, I planned to just add maybe a hundred words and tie it up better...then it hit over 6,000 words. **

**...Whoops.**

**Originally, I was going to make Hikaru have a panic attack, then when Akari went to his home after knocking him out with a Genjutsu then leaving him at the Hospital, his father would reveal that his sister had been killed by Iwa-nin in the last war, then it would lead onto him self-harming through some reason I hadn't come up with yet.**

**Then I realized this story really doesn't need shit like that...so I deleted it. Sure, it set me back a ways, but I don't want to have another Chapter 27 on my hands, and I'm sure you boos don't want that either.**

**Also, ran into someone in the YouTube comments section who recognized me, so that was cool. If you're reading this boo, yes, it actually was me.**

_**Chapter 37**_

* * *

"Ehh? How could you not tell us?"

Akari unrepentantly shrugged, ignoring Aiko's twitching eye. "It slipped my mind." What he was referring to was her birthday. It occurred only a week after she'd taken the Genin on their first D-rank mission, but she'd let it slip by without any fanfare. Of course, she, Naruto, Sei and Kana had all had dinner together to celebrate, but it was a much more private affair than most others had their birthdays.

To be perfectly honest, she was happy with that. Anko, Komachi, along with all the other nin she knew had no idea when her birthday was, which was how she liked it, spending time with close family. "But how are we meant to get you presents if we don't know?" Aiko yelled, waving his arms around for emphasis.

Akari folded her arms. "Aiko, I don't want presents and things like that. I'm far happier spending my time with those close to me. Maybe next year we can all have dinner together, but I don't want to be getting wrapped-up things I don't really care about. If you honestly see something you think I'd adore like a rare Fuinjutsu scroll or something then sure, go for it, but don't get me a trinket or whatever just because you couldn't find a present. I get presents for other people, sure, but I try to think of a present they would actually appreciate."

She thought back to Deidara. Sure, it didn't matter what the clay he used was, but damn if his eyes didn't light up on seeing the incredibly fine clay she'd gotten for him. "But...but we're still meant to get you something!" Akari rolled her eyes.

"You really aren't Aiko. Besides, I think getting you three was a pretty good early present for me." That was the truth. While sure they took up her time, having them around was great fun. Teaching them the wall-walking technique was also amazing, watching Hikaru's hesitant steps up the tree while Tachiko and Aiko struggled. Then Tachiko observed how Hikaru did it and tried to mimic him, eventually leaving Aiko behind still blasting holes in the tree as he tried to climb.

"Akari-san?" She looked over at the secretary. "The Hokage is ready for you now." Nodding her acknowledgement, she ushered the three Genin out of the seats and towards the door, sidestepping another team as they left. She didn't recognize the man leading them, but she gave them a wave as they passed. Even if only one of them returned her wave, that was still a success in her eyes.

She held the door open for her team, then letting the door swing shut as she walked into the room. After a few weeks of doing D-ranks, a lot of the hero-worship the three Genin held for the Hokage had diminished since he was the man constantly assigning them, in their own words, 'lame baby missions'. "Ahh, Akari-san, good to see you." Hiruzen greeted her as she faced him, a genial smile on his face, even as he pulled out papers from his desk.

Akari returned his greeting with a wave. "Heya Hokage-sama, you have another mission for us?" She ignored the pleading looks her Genin gave her, watching the Hokage instead. He'd made mention of whether she thought her team was ready for a C-rank mission last time she delivered the mission report, evidently trying to cover for the fact that Akari had absolutely no experience with a typical team progression. She thought they were ready, and that she could cover if something dumb happened, but the Hokage didn't go anywhere with it, merely accepting her words.

The man nodded, pulling one page out from the sheaf of papers, laying it down on his desk. "Indeed. I would normally give this to another team, but since you believe your team ready to handle this, well, I think you three would appreciate the change of difficulty, yes?" As he spun the page around so Akari could read it, her team all leaned in, still having not learned their lesson about mission reports.

So while they looked at the indecipherable page in incomprehension, Akari read what the document actually said, her eyebrows raising as she looked up at the Hokage. "Well, you certainly don't disappoint, Hokage-sama." Her brats all looked at her for answers, ones she was happy to provide. "This mission is a seek and destroy mission, our objective being the leader of a bandit group. We have to hunt him down somewhere in Hi no Kuni, take his head, then bring it back for confirmation. Apparently the client got a caravan raided by him and wants his head to make a statement." She spoke bluntly, no need to sugar-coat what it was, glorified mercenary work.

Aiko's face blanched slightly, which was better than Hikaru's strangely surprised appearance. Tachiko seemed to be the only one who actually knew, really knew, what they were getting into, probably due to her past living with her mother in the Red Light District. There were certainly more than a handful of Konoha Shinobi who visited the area, and who would be quite loose-lipped with the daughter of the woman they were seeing, especially if she was merely asking about their life. "H-his head?" Hikaru asked.

Akari shrugged. "Well, not explicitly his head, those are just easiest for identification. You could take a memento of theirs that the target would never part with, but those are often disputed, meaning you won't get paid until the target has been confirmed dead by a 'reputable source'." Akari looked over her three Genin with a frown. "You three should know this sort of thing by now. How did you get through so long in the Academy without knowing what it was you'd be getting into?" Tachiko raised her hand, stepping forwards slightly when Akari nodded at her.

"Well, I think the Academy started taking in farm ore civilians, whose parents petitioned the civilian liaison with the Hokage to get the Academy's standards lowered, since it put far too much favor in the hands of the Clan Kids." Akari blinked, turning her gaze towards Hiruzen, nonchalantly puffing away at his pipe.

Akari pinched her nose with a sigh. "Hokage-sama, please don't tell me they actually did that?" Though he clearly didn't want to say it, the Hokage nodded. "Idiots. All that's going to do is get their kids killed believing that being a Shinobi is some fairy-tale,-" She waved her hand at Aiko. "-saving princesses and defeating evil when it arises. I've probably killed more people than any missing-nin listed in the Bingo Books, just due to the nature of the missions I undertook, sabotage and seek/destroy missions. I would eliminate everybody in the camp, which serves as a dangerous message to Konoha's enemies...'Don't fuck with us.' Who would mess with Konoha after uncovering a camp ridden with dead bodies, all slain by one person?"

Her Genin all looked pretty horrified at the prospect of killing so many people, even Tachiko, who Akari knew had a slightly stronger stomach for things like that. "I think you've said enough Akari-san." The Hokage's firm voice brought her back down from her anger, justified as it was, merely misdirected. Akari shook her head, mumbling an apology as she stuffed her hands into her pockets. "Now then, do you still believe your team ready for this mission?" Akari shrugged, but nodded all the same.

"Yeah, I think they are. I'll make sure they all come back...ready for what's in their future."

**Quest Received!**

**Crimson Sunrise.**

**Objectives: Take your Team on their first C-rank mission.**

**Ensure each member survives.**

**Reward: 25,000 experience**

**Hidden objective:**

**?**

* * *

After they left the Hokage's office, Akari gave them each instructions.

They were to gather up anything necessary for a weeks travel, something that fortunately the Academy still covered, then meet her at Konoha's south gate tomorrow, bright and early at seven in the morning. If the mission extended past that, she'd just use her 'Fuinjutsu', or perhaps make them hunt some animals. After all, she couldn't always be there to hold their hands and pull food from her inventory for them.

Then she sent them off, though she was curious as to how they'd look in the morning. Knowing Aiko, he'd have bounced right back from what was revealed, somehow justifying it to himself. Tachiko seemed already prepared for the prospect, though she would probably freeze up in a nasty way when the reality of things came crashing down as she plunged her Kunai into the throat of her first enemy.

But Hikaru was the one she was keeping the sharpest eye on. He...really didn't seem cut out for being a Shinobi. He was shy, rather softly-spoken, though he had a wicked tongue for humor when he was able to stutter out his words correctly. He seemed pretty afraid of the whole idea of taking a life, something that completely threw Akari off. She'd have to keep one hand on his collar the entire time they were out hunting this guy down, otherwise he would probably find himself in a situation he couldn't handle, and would freeze up on her. She certainly didn't want to lose a member of her team, not so soon after it was formed.

Akari spent the day at home with Naruto, doing what he wanted to do. Of course, the first thing he asked was if they could have Ramen, which Akari finally gave into and made him a few bowls, though off-set it by making sure he didn't just have pork ramen, slipping in a few other ingredients to the mix, just to spice things up. He didn't seem too happy that there was bits of turnip, carrot, potato and other things, but he knew enough about Akari to not complain, eating it all up regardless.

After food, the pair spent a lot of their time going over Fuinjutsu. Thanks to his Uzumaki heritage, Naruto had a frankly unfair advantage for learning it, compared to other people at least. The only person Akari knew who could out-class him in learning speed was herself, thanks to the perk she'd selected when she first arrived there. She also had the advantage of being able to learn advanced seals just by repeatedly grinding scrolls she would then scrap, or sell off to Shinobi stores. After all, Konoha had very few Fuinjutsu experts, Jiraiya being one of them. As he was practically never in the village, Akari was one of the very few people to even know how to write seals, let alone ones good enough for re-sale to other Shinobi for use.

She only did that with seals she didn't care about, storage seals, explosive tags, things of that nature. Even if somebody stole those seals, they weren't exactly unique. As it stood, she was left at level 94 Fuinjutsu proficiency, having gained three during her time working on the Kage no Te seal. That meant she could conceive most seals, if she took the time to think about them that was.

Since Fuinjutsu regularly broke all logic, just like her own hand, she didn't tamper too much with things, not wanting to accidentally create a Fuinjutsu that turned the sky pink. Though maybe doing that temporarily, just for a day or so, to celebrate something...that'd be fun. Considering how the Sage of Six Paths managed to make a seal strong enough to trap the ten-tailed beast, a god-like being, doing something that paled by comparison was certainly within her grasp.

It didn't honestly make too much sense to her knowing that if she just thought about it, her mind would somehow supply a way to do it, but she didn't question it. It was a great way to avoid unnecessary headaches. So she just let her attention be taken up by Naruto, who seemed to be making the most of his time with her. She always told him, when she could at least, of the times she was leaving, when she expected to be back, and who would be looking after him in her absence, usually Anko or her mother would be happy to look after him for a few days.

Sure, he was rather mature for his age, but she didn't trust him to actually look after himself for more than a single day. Since she didn't want to leave Kurama behind, as the whole idea for the seal she'd made was that he got to experience the world for himself, she couldn't just ask him to watch over Naruto. And, though he didn't complain, it was clear Naruto wasn't happy with how often she had to disappear, several hundred missions undertaken while he was growing up would do that.

He understood though, he knew that he himself, when he made Genin that was, would be out of Konoha often on missions, doing missions just like Akari. Well, hopefully not the exact same, she didn't want him to have to kill so many people. He'd definitely have to kill at least a few, that was unavoidable in their line of work, but she never wanted him to get his own bingo-book page for killing more than a thousand enemies.

That was one of the achievements she had missed, though it didn't give her anything useful, just a small pile of health potions. Now, that might have sounded super useful, but each potion she had to drink in its entirety, which wasn't viable during combat. If it gave her a large chunk of health, that'd also be useful, except all it did was a single-use 1000 hit-points heal.

As in, two seconds of Mystical Palm usage. That simply wasn't useful to her anymore. On the occasion that she ran out of Chakra or something, then certainly, they'd be handy, which was why they were in her inventory still, but in general, she'd much prefer to simply use her own Jutsu to heal herself.

Speaking of Jutsu, Akari looked at her hand, using her Observe skill to check how long her Fuinjutsu would last. She had finally gotten around, whilst Naruto was busy inscribing a basic barrier seal, to writing the seal onto Vellum, then sewing it into the lining of her left armguard. She had another month left on her hand, so just to be safe she pushed another fifteen-thousand points of Chakra into the seal, exhaling at the large dip in her reserves. That was enough for another six months, and she would regenerate it after only two and a half minutes, so she wasn't worried in the slightest about going on-mission with low reserves.

Even if she did, Kurama would just back her up.

* * *

Akari tapped her foot on the floor, resisting the urge to check her Game for the time.

She told the three Genin to be there at seven. It was now about five minutes to seven, and none of them had shown up yet. She expected at least Tachiko to have shown up early, but there was no sign of her. The gate-guards said they hadn't seen them, and they'd been there since six, so that ruled out them hiding from her. Not that they could, since she swept the area with her Sharingan, just in case they were hiding somewhere, planning to do something stupid.

She gave in to the urge and flicked her eyes to her Game. 6:58AM, two minutes to go. if they were late for their first mission, she was going to push their asses harder than Kushina pressed her into Fuinjutsu training. Since her fingers still ached when she remembered how many times she had to write out seals until Kushina deemed them acceptable, it didn't bode well for her team.

As 6:59 rolled around, she caught sight of her three Genin, all walking in a group towards them. She looked them each over with her Sharingan, frowning. Hikaru looked far more ruffled than expected. She certainly expected him to be uncomfortable going on his first mission where he would have to kill somebody else, but not to that degree. Her Genin chose that moment to spot her and head over, arriving beside her just as seven on the dot rolled around.

Saying nothing, Akari stepped forwards, looking Hikaru over closely. She ignored Aiko and Tachiko as she stared at him. After he withstood her gaze without backing down for a few moments, she patted him on the head. "You're stronger than you know Hikaru. I know some Jonin who can't match my stare for longer than a few seconds." She ruffled his hair slightly, smirking as he pouted and tried to fix his hair. Tachiko snorted at him and shoved his hands away, righting his hair while Aiko hammered about how awesome this mission was going to be.

If he didn't make any mention of the fact that they'd have to kill somebody, Akari pretended not to notice.

* * *

"Before we move in, take one of these each."

Akari handed out ear-pieces, each of them similar to those her own Sensei gave to her team all those years ago. "S-sensei, these are expensive!" That was true, to the tune of a hundred-thousand Ryo per individual ear-piece. But to her, that wasn't really much at all, especially given how high her bingo-book bounty was. Besides, she spent maybe half of the money she earned, the rest just got stored in her inventory, doing absolutely nothing useful for her, so spending it on her team wasn't going to hurt her at all.

"That doesn't matter, what matters is that now I can know for sure you three aren't getting into trouble. If you ever get in over your head, just say so and I'll be there in a flash." What her Genin didn't know was that a modified Hiraishin seal had been condensed and written on the insides of each ear-piece. The only difference in her edited seal was that instead of spitting her out directly beside their ear, it would locate the seal's orientation to the ground, then make sure she appeared feet-first in empty space a short distance from the seal. That way she wouldn't appear and practically flatten whoever needed her help, nor appear upside-down or sideways and face on her face.

In a way, being there in a flash was an apt way to describe it. Hikaru looked like he still wanted to argue, but Akari's look sent him putting the ear-piece on hurriedly, while Aiko and Tachiko had already placed theirs in. "Okay, rules of engagement. We are being paid to take back the head of the leader for this merry band. Said band probably won't be happy, they'll try to keep his head on his shoulders, meaning we're gonna have to kill at least a few of them, possibly all of them. I won't lie to you three, the first is going to be hardest, this will decide whether you'll be able to be a Shinobi or not. But...-" Akari looked them each in the eyes as she spoke. "-just know that you three have certainly earned the right to call yourselves Shinobi of Konoha, just by being here today."

With those totally inspirational words, Akari turned to face the camp. "Well, I suppose since I'm meant to be training you guys as well, who wants to volunteer to do reconnaissance?" The three Genin looked between each other, each discussing who would be best suited for the task, finally nominating Hikaru for the role. "Hmm, well, I'll defer to your knowledge you three."

Being totally honest, she would have selected Tachiko, but then again, Hikaru was the one who managed to sneak up on her using Aiko's distraction, maybe he was better at stealth than she'd realized. "Okay, you know what you're looking for?" he shook his head. "Oh for fuck sake. Okay, figure out how many guards they have, where the perimeter of their camp is, on each side mind you, and try to get a rough count of how many there are based on tent-counts. For every three tents, you can guess two people, since bandits usually sleep in their own lodgings, but they'll need places for their loot and other things." He nodded along to her words, dropping off the branch when she waved him off. "Don't forget to keep in contact with your ear-piece if you need advice."

He mumbled an affirmative. Being frank, she didn't actually know much about doing reconnaissance, she would usually just slip inside the perimeter then wreak havoc, but since that wouldn't work for her Genin, coming up with a plan was probably best. Of course, she was the best equipped to do scouting thanks to her Sharingan, but her Genin had to learn their own skills somehow, so what better way than in the field?

A few minutes passed before Hikaru spoke into his ear-piece. "Akari-sensei, should I try and figure out where we should enter?"

"Well, if somewhere obvious appears, like a breach in their perimeter, then sure, but otherwise, bring back at much information as you can, leave the planning part to me." Sure, they were meant to be learning, but they wouldn't have to command their own squad until at minimum they had a years experience as a Chunin. Recon was certainly something a Chunin would be used for, so they each had to learn how to effectively recon an enemy base, but planning and tactics? Those were Jonin things to do, perhaps High-Chunin.

After maybe ten minutes total, Hikaru slipped back up into the tree Akari and the rest of the team were waiting within. "There are twelve sentries around the wall, mostly focused on the north and south side, only two each on the east and west walls. There are only two gates, one on the northern side, one southern, but there looked to be a damaged section of wall on the western side. It looked patched over, s-so potentially a viable entry point, but only if we were going loud since we'd have to break through the patched section. From what I could see, there were about 37 tents, so approximately...24 or 25 h-hostiles?"

Akari nodded, smiling. "Good job. You able to scribe a rough map of the wall, marking down where that breach is?" Hikaru nodded hesitantly, to which she clasped his shoulder. "Hey, you did a good job. Intel is often the most important part for a Shinobi, otherwise we could run in there and get attacked by a squad of Iwa-nin. Now, you three stay put, I'm going to have a quick peek, then we'll move in." She vanished from the branch as she spoke, using the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu to vanish from sight, then slipping down into the brush below.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Hikaru's estimations and observations, she just wanted to make absolutely sure none of her team got injured during the sight. That was one way she differed from her own Sensei, considering the injury she got on her very first mission could have been attributed to him losing track of his target.

Stalking through the forest, she quickly came to the small clearing erected around the short wooden palisade the bandits were using for a defensive wall. Akari circled the entire camp, the entire time staring inwardly with her Sharingan. She spotted the damaged wall section Hikaru mentioned, but what he failed to see were the trip-wires crisscrossed across the area directly in front of it, which were hooked up to...

"Oh shit." She mumbled. There were explosive tags attached to those trip-wires, that meant somebody in the camp could use Fuinjutsu. Either that, or they knew enough about Chakra to activate a conditional explosive tag and bind it to a physical tripwire. That could spell trouble. It was still totally within the purview of the mission, it just meant she'd have to be doubly careful not to let one of her Genin run into anyone too dangerous.

Akari finished her circle around the camp and frowned. Aside from the explosive-rigged hole, she didn't see anything too suspicious about the camp, it seemed like a typical bandit camp, the kind she'd taken more than her fair share of during her career. Hikaru had missed three tents in his count, so there were possibly one, maybe two more hostiles in the camp, by average of course. There could be more, or there could be less, the estimate was just that, an estimation.

She took another brief glance over the camp, then headed back towards her Genin. She arrived quickly, de-activating her Jutsu and re-appearing with a shimmer. "Okay, let's move in. We'll go over the eastern wall, use the wall-walking technique." Her Genin took in her voice and facial expression, adopting serious expressions of their own. the time for jokes and light-heartedness was over, they were now about to attack and kill other people because they'd been paid to do it.

Akari took the lead, slipping off the branch, followed closely by the three Genin. "I'll handle the leader, you three will take point when we go over the wall, kill anyone nearby, we can't afford to have them wake up and stab us in the back." She heard Hikaru swallow audibly, but they each took up positions in front of Akari as they ran, quickly breaching the treeline and making straight for the wall, sprinting straight up. Hikaru and Aiko went on the left side, whilst Tachiko went right, emerging over the lip of the wall in front of the surprised patrolling bandits.

Aiko planted a fist right into his targets face, while Tachiko used a Kunai, her blade slashing at his face. The man yelled in pain, alerting the rest of the camp as he drew his sword and raised it over his head. Akari flickered her gaze from side to side, assessing the situation. Aiko had a Kunai in his hand, stood over his downed opponent in indecision, whilst Tachiko was now fending off blows from her injured opponent. Hikaru looked torn between protecting Aiko and helping Tachiko.

Sighing, Akari formed several hand seals, raising her hand towards the oncoming reinforcements. "Raiton: Hebi Ikazuchi." A coiling snake of red Lightning sprung from her palm, growing in size as more Chakra was expelled. The lead bandit screamed in agony as the snake slammed straight through him, shocking him with a massive amount of electricity.

But, as the snake was made of lightning, it continued on unhindered, sweeping across the top of the wall like a wave and electrocuting every single bandit it made contact with. She bid the snake to then sweep all the way around the wall, plowing through every bandit until it had come around, where it fizzled into nothingness. "Hmm, fodder." Those bandits were probably only level 10 or so, so weak even a single Jutsu killed them. She looked at Aiko, seeing as Tachiko was handling herself in her first proper fight. "Either do it, or we're going back to Konoha right now." Her calm, yet cutting words, managed to break Aiko from his shock, sending his clenched Kunai into the throat of the unconscious bandit, killing the man in moments.

She saw the moment that Aiko went into an acute stress reaction, his eyes glazing over slightly as he stared at the corpse. She grabbed his collar and pulled him away from the corpse, forcing him to look away from the body and at her, while at the same time Kurama kept an eye on Tachiko's fight, just in case something happened while she was busy. "Aiko, listen to me. You did a good job. These men are all bandits, you hear me? They won't hesitate to kill you. Certainly, he was defenseless at that moment, but if he woke up, he wouldn't think twice about stabbing one of us in the back for stopping him and his group, even knowing he'd die to one of us for doing it."

She rubbed his hair as the light returned to his eyes, regaining focus. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay and make absolutely sure he was alright, as more bandits were coming up onto the palisade. She got up, slipping the Kusanagi out of her inventory. "Well, I think this is the first time I've used you in combat, let's see how you perform." She held the blade up in both hands, the tip pointed squarely past Tachiko, lined up perfectly with the oncoming group of bandits.

With a nonchalant press of Chakra, she sent the blade tip piercing several dozen meters forwards, skewering at least a dozen men on her sword. With her high strength, she then wrenched the blade upwards, carving straight through the bodies of those men. As the sword receded, each dead man fell to the ground, while she flicked the now-regularly-sized sword off of blood. "Well, that was successful."

Watching Tachiko's fight, she had to say that the girl was keeping her cool quite well, even if she was clearly outmatched a little by her opponent. She had a new cut on her finger which was dribbling blood at a steady pace, but other than that, the only problem she was having was her flagging stamina. Akari stepped in, gripping the arm which was bringing a sword down towards Tachiko's Kunai, then wrenched that arm around until it snapped with an audible crack.

The blade clattered to the ground as the man screamed, though Akari was busy looking at Tachiko. "Finish him." The girl looked at the KUnai in her hand, then at the man, who even in agony still looked at her with fury, as if she was responsible for what Akari had done to him. Tightening her grip on her Kunai, she stepped forwards and plunged the weapon through the soft flesh of his throat, ending his life.

Akari was ready for another stress reaction to deal with, but was surprised when Tachiko looked between her KUnai and the corpse, then shook the blade off and re-sheathed it. She was probably compartmentalized, an efficient but dangerous way to deal with things of that nature. As long as she made sure to vent occasionally, she'd be alright, but if she always pushed it aside, she'd break down.

Looking across the corpses she'd generated, Akari couldn't locate any live bandits for Hikaru to mercy-kill, that was irritating. But, since she had promised the Hokage that her team would come back 'ready', she had to ensure they were all blooded with at least one kill. She couldn't put it off, otherwise it'd just get harder and harder to do. "Hikaru, on me. You two, take our rear." She jumped off the palisade, the thump of her landing matched by the quieter thumps as the rest of the team landed. "We're going to be in contact in about ten seconds, so you have to be ready for what you have to do."

Hikaru gave a shaky nod, his hands clasped around a pair of Kunai. An interesting choice, but it was his decision, so she would let him do as he wished. She dropped Kusanagi into her inventory, quirking her lips to the side before drawing her old Karambit knives, those would be perfect for hooking underneath any armour her opponents might be wearing. Plus she could trap a blade quite easily, then flick it away before stabbing her opponent.

Just as she drew her knives, two bandits came around the corner of the tents, charging them with a loud yell. Silently, Akari stepped forwards, her eyes flicking to the side just to make sure that Hikaru was meeting her movements. He was a little behind her, but he was still pushing forwards slightly. Aas the first bandit brought his blade down towards her, Akari swung her left arm out, smashing the blade to the side with extreme force, then stepping in past his pitiful guard, plunging the hooked knife through his armpit, then wrenching it sideways and down, which brought him low enough for Akari to swipe her other blade across his throat.

She shoved the corpse to the side, straight through a tent. As she looked left, she watched Hikaru stab his opponent's arm as he overextended, but another blade called her attention forwards. She avoided the strike, stabbed one blade into his wrist, then used that anchor-point to pull him forwards into a vicious head-butt, shattering his entire face with the force.

By comparison? Akari lost a hundred hit-points, totally worth it. This was what she relished, the feeling of a good fight. It was how she coped with killing so many people. The next fight was always there. And the next. All the way until there were no more fights to fight. What would she do then? She'd come home again, to Naruto. To Monty. Anko, Komachi, Deidara, Sei and Kana. Even Hiruzen. But that time, she wouldn't have to leave again.

She rolled her eyes of her own silly thoughts, looking again at Hikaru, just in time to watch him stab his Kunai into the eye-socket of his opponent. He'd been forced to make a choice, he could stab his opponent, or the man would have stabbed him. He, much like Aiko, froze up. However, unlike Aiko, Akari couldn't just pull him from the fight for twenty seconds to correct him.

So, dropping her knives into her inventory, she formed several two-handed seals. "Raiton: Hyakurai!" She intoned, raising her hands and releasing a wave of lightning bolts which seared the air as they bolted towards the oncoming group of bandits. The storm of lightning only lasted a few seconds, but that was enough time to eliminate the opposition, as it was all low-levelled bandits, not a major threat to a level 78 like herself. She made a quick Shadow Clone, fueling it with enough Chakra for a few hours, then sending it forwards to take up her enemies for a few seconds.

She knelt down and gripped Hikaru on both sides of his head, tipping his head to look at her. "Hikaru, listen to me. Are you listening to me? Nod your head if you are, yeah?" He slowly tipped his head up and down. "Good. Do you remember what I told Aiko? These men are killers. By doing what you just did, you probably vindicated more than a few families who he tore apart. Focus on that, not on what he could have been, focus on the lives you have avenged, and those you potentially saved, those he can't hurt any-shit!"

Akari spun around in time to deflect the sword coming for her back, using her left hand to wrap straight around the blade, then clenching harshly, crushing the sword in her hand. Unconsciously, she released her control over her speed, bolting forwards and plunging her fist straight through the chest of the man who had slipped by her Shadow Clone, just for a brief moment. As she turned back around, she could see Hikaru reacting at least somewhat normally. "T-thank you S-sensei..." She patted him on the head with her left hand, as her right was covered at least a little on blood.

"Don't mention it. You want to pivot out and let Tachiko take over for a moment, catch your breath?" As she spoke, she turned to face forwards again, watching her Shadow Clone pummel its way through bandits in a fury, evidently unhappy at having one slip past. She peered at the corpse, then snorted. That was the leader of the bandits she'd just killed. What a weakling.

She heard Hikaru shift away, Tachiko coming up behind her. "I'll take point with a large-scale Jutsu. Let's wipe the rest of these guys out then head home, I already dealt with the leader." She dispelled her Shadow Clone, ignoring the flush of memories as she flipped through several hand seals, holding one as she inhaled. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Exhaling, Akari breathed a stream of flames into life, twisting her head from left to right, unleashing a wave of fire which sent the bandits screaming as they were lit on fire.

Tachiko covered her eyes from the brightness, then formed hand seals of her own, ending after five seals by clapping her hands together. "Futon: Reppusho!" She thrust one palm forwards, forcing a gust of wind into Akari's fire, boosting the flames by a degree. It wasn't exactly much, but for a Genin, it was certainly a pleasant surprise to know one of her students knew Wind techniques. She cut the stream of flames off, observing her handiwork with a sigh. "Well, at least I didn't burn his corpse." When Tachiko and Hikaru both laughed then looked at each other in surprise, Akari donned a smile of her own.

Oh yeah, they were going to be just fine.

* * *

**So, first C-rank mission!**

**I kinda suck at writing Acute Stress Reactions, so I just made then each have one, have Tachiko just compartmentalize it, whereas Aiko and Hikaru both freeze up, then having Akari basically push them to press on. I really don't know how to write those scenes, so...that's all I got really.**

**Akari won't be finishing her mission until she hands in her report to the Hokage, so don't worry about me forgetting a quest again! She did get some experience though, so her Exp counter has risen a bit. Since they were so low-level though, not by much.**

**See ya soon boos!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 78**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 10152/78,000**

**To Next Level: 67848**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 161**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**

_**5 Skill Points Available**_


	38. Chapter 38

**I swear, I let myself get influenced by music I listen to way too easily.**

**If you ever get curious why Akari randomly sings songs on occasion, it's because I was listening to a song and decided that it fit the scene...what I decided to write was kinda dumb, and probably something I shouldn't have added, but I like it, so it's going in there.**

_**Chapter 38**_

* * *

As Konoha came into view, her tired, emotionally-drained Genin made a sigh of relief.

At several points, she debated with Kurama the idea of simply using the Hiraishin to get them back home, but logic won through. Even ignoring the facts that she both wanted to keep it a secret as well as being unable to use it without being extremely nauseous on arrival, she wouldn't always be there to help them home after a hard mission. Granted, she could have eased them into things, using it for their first few missions, but since she had other reasons for not using it, her three Genin were left having to walk home after their first mission.

Each of them had a kill, she'd guaranteed that, even forcing their hands somewhat. But, while it was harsh on them, it would serve two, perhaps more roles. Firstly, it would acclimatize them to the act of killing. But it would also bring them together through their shared hardship. They all got a kill on the same evening, that would hopefully help them bond further than they already were.

They approached Konoha's gate by way of walking on the road, rather than simply dropping down from the trees nearby as Akari was used to. Not that her Genin were even capable of tree-hopping, especially not how fast she travelled whilst tree-flitting. Tachiko was walking in the lead, Aiko and Hikaru following behind her side by side, while Akari brought up the rear, only mildly distracted by the music playing in her ears.

...Walking for days on end was boring, alright? Having pretty much any song from her old world playing in her ears made it all go so much faster. As that song ended and another began, she had a funny idea, covering her out to keep quiet as he considered it. On one hand, explaining how she was doing it was going to be a bitch, but on the other hand, Fuinjutsu was the answer for everything. Plus, it meant she could do it during their travelling, which would keep her teams spirits up. "Kurama, should I do it?"

She just decided to ask her closest friend, he'd always have a better answer for her. **"Sure, then I can listen as well."** Or he'd let himself get influenced by what he wanted. Shrugging, Akari poked at her menu using only her eyes, setting her music to play extremely quietly, except it would actually become an audible sound, meaning other people could hear it.

She steadily rose how loud the song was, waiting until her Genin finally reacted. First, Hikaru turned around, his hearing apparently being better than Aiko's. Akari acted nonchalant, as though she couldn't hear it, even as she very steadily rose how loud it was. "Sensei...what is that?" She slumped her arms, pouting. He could tell where it was coming from.

"It's a little trick I came up with. Using this, I can play music whenever I want. I'm not even going to try and explain how it works, that's something you'll have to wait until you're fully-fledged Jonin to learn, but I kinda forgot I could do it until now." She swayed her head along to the music as she spoke. It was currently playing a long, peaceful mix of music, just some piano, strings, other light travelling musical instruments and sounds.

Turning it up loud enough that Aiko and Tachiko could hear it, she smirked as they all closed formation slightly, just to hear better. "Sensei, did you play this?" Tachiko asked, to which she shook her head. She may have claimed some things as her own, but claiming to be good enough to play music like that? If they ever asked her to actually play it for them, she'd be screwed. Besides, there were plenty of ways to explain it away if she said she didn't make the music itself.

"No, I didn't play this. I did mix it all together into this, but everything you hear individually was made by somebody else." Tachiko nodded, closing her eyes and listening for a few seconds.

"It's beautiful, Akari-sensei." Akari smiled. It certainly was. It was one of the few pieces of music she ever played when she was in her hideout back in her old world. But she shook her head before any more thoughts of her old world came about, then snorted at how close her Genin had gotten to her.

She took a deliberately delayed step, so they would space from her a little. "You know I can just turn the volume up, right?" She did so, raising it a little more. But, as they were approaching the gate, she paused the music, much to her teams dismay. "Hey, don't forget only you guys have ever heard this music, since I'm the only person, to my knowledge at least, to use Fuinjutsu like this. You can enjoy it when we're out of the village, but don't bring it up to other people. I'm not a karaoke, alright?"

Though they were all clearly unhappy at being cut off from the beautiful music, they all nodded in agreement. If it meant they could listen to beautiful music to fill their travel-time, they were happy about it, even if it meant they had to keep it a secret. "Good." Akari stepped up to the Chunin gate-guard, offering her identification to him. After a moment of scrutiny, he let her in. When they entered the village properly, she turned to her three Genin. "Now then, you three can head on home and relax, we'll meet at the usual training ground tomorrow to discuss what happened, what we'll be doing to improve, yadda-yadda get on out of here."

"Bye Sensei!" "Bye Akari-sensei!" "See ya Sensei." They all spoke, all three of them heading off in the same direction. She watched them go for a few moments, then stuffed her hands into her pockets and began wandering towards the Hokage's office, no point delaying her report after all. Plus she wanted the experience from her quest. For some reason, all quests related to missions the Hokage gave her only completed after she officially handed her report to the old man.

Akari didn't bother going onto the rooftops, instead she took her time walking through the village, taking in the sights of the unfamiliar route. Since she spent 90% of her time travelling up on the rooftops compared to walking in the streets, she wasn't actually too familiar with these roads. She knew that Terumasa's blacksmith shop was only a few roads over, but she didn't really need to pay him a visit, her knives were still in great condition after all.

She made a mental note to pop in and say hello regardless.

* * *

Meeting the Hokage went pretty normally.

She told him what happened, whilst also writing out a physical report for him to file. He questioned a few things like how each Genin reacted to their kills, among other questions, before letting her go and taking her report with a muttered grievance about paperwork. She left the room glad that he understood that she didn't want to touch that job with a ten-foot barge pole. It was a job doing good work, but it was not even remotely Akari's speciality...paperwork! She could write out a seal just fine, or do a report, but trawling through hundreds and thousands of sheets of paper each day? She'd rather take on the entirety of Iwa with one eye closed, an arm tied behind her back, and Kurama gnawing her ear off.

As she exited the tower and stretched, she looked around in consideration of how she would spend the day. She didn't want to just train more, she'd already spent ages working on her Agility training, trying to make it so she could control her speed without relying on her Mangekyo. If she could do that, activating her Sharingan would probably make her perception of time so fast that normal people would be practically frozen in place, since it amplified what was already there, meaning it could be trained.

Naruto would probably be fine spending the rest of the afternoon with Kana, her mother loved doting on him. Why she had to teach him how to say Kaa-san Akari had no idea, she'd given up trying to change it at this point, her new name might as well be that, to Naruto at least. Maybe when he hit Genin and Akari let him meet his mother he'd stop calling her that. Hopefully.

Anko was probably busy working in T&I, she didn't want to get in her way while she was working, even if she could make the excuse that she wanted to come pick Monty up. Komachi...she was either on a mission right now, or with her boyfriend, she couldn't remember. Deidara was out of the village for certain, Akari remembered him telling her he was going to Kaze no Kuni for a few weeks, for a mission at first, then when the mission was over he was going to meet his girlfriend in Suna.

Biting at her thumbnail, Akari tried to come up with something she actually needed to do...but drew a blank, wandering towards her favourite training ground on autopilot. She brought up her menu, planting her five points she'd forgotten about into Agility, raising it to 166, before tilting her head. "Kurama~!" She chirped, smiling when he was roused from his sleep and glared at her. "I need help, I can't think of anything I need to do." The fox stared at her a moment, then tipped his gaze to the sky in thought, finally meeting her gaze again after a few moments.

The fact he looked right at her eyes without fear spoke volumes, every time he did it made her so happy. **"Perhaps you could investigate the randomized summoning contract you received from the Entity as recompense?"** Blinking, Akari opened her inventory and input that name into the search-bar. Sure enough, there was a random scroll for exactly that purpose, she'd totally forgotten about it.

"Thanks boo..." She mumbled, unfurling the scroll and palming her chin as she looked over the maelstrom of swirls and lines painted liberally across the paper scroll. No matter what way she looked at it, none of the Fuinjutsu written on the scroll made a lick of sense to her, presumably since it wasn't proper Fuinjutsu, it was just meant to look like Fuinjutsu since it was a 'summoning scroll.' "Should I tell Bao about this?" Kurama made an unbothered noise, dipping his head back down and going back to sleep on her shoulders.

Sighing, Akari nipped her thumb, forming the hand seals to summon Bao. After a few moments and a puff of smoke, the big panda appeared in all his glory, sat on his hindquarters idly chewing Bamboo. "Akari-chan, good to see you, how have you been?" Akari grinned, patting Kurama on the head.

"Pretty good all things considered. Got this 'lil guy out of his seal...sort of." The Panda's jaw dropped, allowing the chewed-up piece of bamboo to fall to the ground as he stared at Kurama. "Before you ask, yes, this is the nine-tailed fox himself, and no, he won't hurt you, not unless I ask him to...or if he really really feels like it."

Though he was still visibly surprised, the big panda gave Kurama the benefit of the doubt. After all, if he judged him just as people judged pandas, he wouldn't be able to complain when Kurama got angry at him. "I...see. I presume you have a reason to summon me? Not that I mind being summoned that is."

Akari held up the random summoning scroll, letting it unroll so Bao could see it. "I got this...I know it's a summoning scroll, but I wanted to ask two questions. Firstly, are you able to identify what kind of animal it would summon? That'd be nice to know." She let Bao take it when he outstretched his paw, turning it this way and that as he peered at it before handing it back with a perplexed expression. "Guessing that's a no?"

The panda nodded. "Yes, I have no idea unfortunately. Being perfectly honest with you Akari-chan, I couldn't even identify the mechanism used to summon, but I know you are remarkable with Fuinjutsu, so I shall defer to your knowledge and subsequent assurance that this is a summoning scroll. What else did you wish to ask?"

Akari scratched the back of her head. "Well, I wanted to know the panda clan's stance on multiple-summoning contracts? I know some people have two or more contracted animals, but I don't know how it all works, so I wanted to ask so I wouldn't upset anybody by just using the scroll, signing a second contract, then starting a clan feud or something over who gets me as a summoner." Bao chuckled.

"Akari-chan, that's only for the big three clans. The Toads, Snakes and Slugs can never have a dual-summoner. You can have the Snake summon and also have lesser clan summons, for example my own clan, but you could never sign the Toad and Snake contracts, Snake and Slug or Toad and Slug, the contract would simply refuse to accept your name. So, you are very welcome to attempt to use this scroll. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to be present, just to assure whichever clan you summon are unable to deny that we have also signed a contract with you." Shrugging, Akari nibbled a new spot of blood from her thumb, channelling Chakra as she marked the scroll with her blood, poofing into existence...a Jackal?

Akari leaned down, staring at the coyote-like creature. "Uhh, hi there Jackal-san." The Jackal looked around a moment, then settled its eyes on her.

"Curious...how long has it been since a potential summoner has called us...?" The Jackal then looked at Bao, his jaw opening up with a burst of yipping laughter. "Bao, you old bear, what are you doing here? How have you been for that matter?" Her panda summon ambled forwards, coming to a stop then sitting down beside Akari.

"I've been well. I must say, I didn't expect to see you appear from this scroll Kohaku. In regards to your first question, approximately two decades have passed since our clans have been summoned. And I am here as Akari-chan here is our summoner, as she perhaps may become your summoner as well." Kohaku's eyes widened, turning to look Akari over closer than their initial cursory glance.

Akari folded her arms, unamused at having been underestimated so much. "A thousand apologies Akari-san, I saw my old friend Bao and my manners went into the river." The Jackal lowered their posture and head closer to the ground. Not touching the ground, of course, that would be a step too far, but even that much was a surprisingly sincere apology.

"It's fine, just...don't make the mistake of underestimating me. The other pandas did so, then they were left with jaws dropped when I shattered their expectations." The Jackal turned to stare at Bao, who nodded with a grin on his lips. It was a rather amusing day after all, and Bao got a front-row seat to it all. "Plus, I've gotten stronger since then, far stronger. Mostly faster, but hey, still a kind of strength, right?"

Considering Jackals could run at about 64 kilometres per hour, a rather impressive speed, they would likely never say speed wasn't a strength. Sure, they couldn't outrun a Cheetah, since those felines could run at over 90 km/h, but still nothing to scoff at. Akari could outrun them both quite handily. "I see. I presume you wish to form a contract with my Clan?" Akari shrugged, she wasn't too bothered.

After all, she'd only ever properly used her Panda summons a single time since signing her contract with them. "I mean, Bao here can attest to the fact I'm not a needy summoner. If I ever summon a Jackal, it'll be because I seriously need to do so. If you guys don't want a summoner, that's alright. It'd be a shame, but I really don't mind." The Jackal again glanced at Bao, who nodded his acknowledgement of Akari's words.

"That sounds agreeable to us, though the Clan would prefer you select a single Jackal from each species of Jackal to choose as your dedicated summon, to ensure they are always kept in work that would allow them to be summoned in an emergency. That would mean three Jackals you may call upon during any emergency, one Golden Jackal, one Black-Backed Jackal, and one Side-Striped Jackal. Is this agreeable with you?" Shrugging, Akari just accepted it with a nod.

It really wasn't like she had to get another summons after all. Then again, a Jackal would be far more suited to being permanently summoned, as while she loved her pandas, they were far too large for most situations. A Jackal would be able to accompany her practically anywhere. She surreptitiously used an observe on Kohaku just to sate her curiosity.

He or perhaps she was level 42, a few levels below Bao, but still stronger than a Chunin, or even a Tokubetsu Jonin. For average levels, a Genin would be between level 5-15 depending on who they were, clan kids usually were higher level thanks to their extra training. Chunin would be around level 20-35, they spanned a wide range of levels. Tokubetsu Jonin claimed the area between around level 30 to 45, a little overlap between the Tokubetsu Jonin, Chunin, but also regular Jonin.

A typical Jonin would usually be anywhere between level 40 to level 65 after all. So, level 42 placed Kohaku at a high-Tokubetsu/low-Jonin level. As long as Kohaku's abilities matched their level, they'd be able to handle a lot on their own. Kohaku nodded once, then closed her or her eyes, Akari really needed to ask, and held still for a moment or two.

A puff of smoke concealed the arrival of a scroll, presumably the Jackal summoning scroll. "If you would sign the scroll please, I'm sure you recall how to from signing the Panda contract?" Akari nipped her thumb, quickly scrawling her name on the barren paper then flicking her thumb, the hole that had been created from her bite having healed up near-instantly.

"Well, you mind reverse-summoning me so I can chat with a few Jackals of each species, try and figure out who I'd like as my summon?" Kohaku nodded, asking her if there was anything she needed to do before, when Akari shook her head, disappearing in a puff of smoke back to the lands the summon clans inhabited. A few moments later, Akari felt the tugging sensation of a reverse-summon.

She waved at Bao, then let the sensation pull her into the realm of the summons.

* * *

In the end, Akari spent a few hours with the Jackals.

She learned of their specialities, their personalities, relations, which clans they liked or hated, social structure, things of that nature. Unsurprisingly, they were very adept hunters, but what Akari didn't actually know was that they preferred hunting in packs. To encourage intra-species cooperation they always travelled with at least one member of each species for a hunt, which was probably one of the reasons she was told to select one from each as her summons.

The Golden Jackals preferred hunting in smaller groups, whereas the Side-Striped and Black-Backed Jackals preferred hunting in larger packs. Following that trend, the Golden Jackals would prefer being solitary or in very small family units, whereas the other two species would group up and nest in large packs, usually dragging the less-willing Golden Jackals in despite their protestations.

Akari had already decided which clan was her favourite...no points for guessing which one, since the Golden Jackals seemed practically made for her. She preferred being alone, 'hunting' alone, generally being solitary, even if she did have friends and wasn't totally socially inept. But since she couldn't just take three of the Golden Jackals as her summons, she still kept looking for a potential summons animal from the other two species, even as Akena trotted along behind her.

It wasn't difficult to find a Golden Jackal she clicked with, Akena was pretty much perfect. She understood that Akari probably wouldn't summon her unless she needed to, though when Akari brought up the fact that she might just summon her for companionship Akena was fine with it, since she'd gotten a bit bored of the savanna which the Jackals inhabited.

She spotted a Side-Striped Jackal lounging around on a low-hanging branch, wandering over to say hello. "Fuck off." The Jackal growled when she got near, making her snort in amusement. "Find another, I'm not gonna be some battle-summon for a useless bitch." Akena growled at that, her body tensing, though relaxing slightly when Akari waved her hand.

"You see, you saying that makes me want to choose you all the more, just because it'd be funny." The Jackal stood up, glaring down at her from his advantageous position. "Not like I plan to summon you guys often anyway, you're a bit...weak for my level of combat, no offense Akena." She turned to give an apologetic smile at the Jackal beside her, then stepped backwards and snatched the Jackal by the scruff of his neck, holding him up to look right into his eyes with a grin. "Slow. If I were to fight seriously, you wouldn't have even made it off the branch."

She released the worried beast, who quickly distanced himself as he stared at her, whilst Akena yipped her amusement. "Akari-chan, leave him, Tsuki has always been a misery-guts, tossing him around won't change anything." Humming, Akari observed the Jackal with a smirk. He was level 43, one level above Kohaku, but three levels below Akena, who was level 46, presumably because she hunted solo, rather than in a group. Of course, when hunting in a pack the experience would be spread out, as well as the fact that in a pack, getting the kill was less likely overall, thanks to all the other Jackals vying for the kill, but on the other hand, solo-hunting was more dangerous and carried a higher chance of the prey escaping.

"Kurama, what do you th-" Akari turned to look at her shoulder, then did a double-take when she realized Kurama had disappeared. She blinked, then groaned. Of course, she got reverse-summoned, but Kurama wouldn't have been brought along...whoops. "Hey Kurama, sorry about not realizing you weren't on my shoulders...hope you're okay?" She got an unamused grumble from the fox...it was better than him just staying silent and whiny she supposed.

**"...It's fine."**

* * *

After a little while longer, and a bit of convincing, Akari finally had her three Jackals.

Akena for the Golden Jackals, Tsuki for the Side-Striped, then finally Goma for the Black-Backed Jackals. Akena and Goma were female, while Tsuki was male. Plus, she finally found out what gender Kohaku was, he was male, so that solved that problem if she ever needed to speak to him again. "Well, thanks for everything!" She waved at Kohaku as she vanished, the Jackal lowering his head a little at her departure.

"I hope to not see you for a while." Akari laughed, that was the idea after all. If she needed to see Kohaku for some reason, there was probably something seriously bad going on if she had to summon more than just her three designated Jackals. With a cloud of white smoke concealing her vision, she disappeared from the Savanna, re-emerging in the training ground, though she grimaced when she realized the sun was now going down.

As promised, she summoned Akena, though had to dip her legs a little as Kurama jumped down from a tree onto her shoulders, slumping down and staring at her. "Hey there boo, sorry about...well, y'know." Akena tilted her head in question. "Oh, this? This is Kurama. Also known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune, Bakegitsune, or my personal favourite, 'His Royal Furriness'." She snickered at the growl Kurama let out, he knew it was just a joke to lighten the mood.

Just as Bao did, Akena had visible surprise on her face, but she didn't immediately hop to a conclusion. Considering the fact that Akari was comfortable enough around him to let the fox practically sit on her jugular, he earned at least a modicum of trust. That didn't to her from taking a jab of her own. "So, does that make you the Royal Throne?" Akari tipped her head.

"Guess it does. Hey, I'm Royalty now bitches!" Nobody was around to hear it aside from Akena and Kurama, but it still amused Akari something fierce. "Oh, right, I still need to..." Mumbling, Akari opened her menu surreptitiously, quickly opening the notification for her quest being completed. It had finished as soon as she left the Hokage's Office, she just didn't bother opening it, then forgot about it.

**Quest Completed!**

**Crimson Sunrise.**

**Objectives: Take your Team on their first C-rank mission - Completed.**

**Ensure each member survives - Completed.**

**Reward: 25,000 experience earned**

**Hidden objective:**

**Have each Genin kill at least one enemy by their own hand - completed.**

**Defeat more than 1/2 of enemy force using only Taijutsu - incomplete.**

**Reward - 20,000 experience per objective, 20,000 experience earned**

It was a bit bloody annoying how her second hidden objective was so specific, meaning that thanks to the fact she didn't know it, she screwed herself over, but it didn't matter much. Sure, she could have done the objective easily had she known it, but she was already a comfortable level. As long as she kept getting a steady flow of quests and experience, she would surpass Hiruzen within perhaps a years time.

Wouldn't that be incredible? At her current level, she was probably about the same level as Hiruzen in his prime. of course, as the man was growing old, if she fought him now, she would probably win simply thanks to the fact she was still in tip-top condition, whereas the old man was probably sporting his fair share of old battle wounds among various aches and pains that would hinder him in a fight.

Of course, he could totally outmatch her in a Jutsu fight, but that was simply a matter of time before she copied enough Jutsu with her Sharingan that she could use practically any Jutsu. Excluding Kekkei Genkai Jutsu of course. "Hey Kurama, can you please tell Akena here the stuff she's gonna need to know like who Narut is, my team, what kinda work I usually do, please?" Though he grumbled at her, Kurama shifted onto her left shoulder, leaving space on her right for Akena to clamber up Akari's outstretched arm and balance herself there.

Of course, if Akari didn't have a strength stat of 70, higher than Bao's by a considerable margin, she'd never be able to walk around casually with a fox and a Jackal on her shoulders, but since she did, it didn't really hinder her movement too much. With the pair anchoring themselves using Chakra, Akari was free to start heading to Kana and her brother's home, as it was certainly later than she expected, Kana was probably wondering whether she'd have to look after Naruto for another evening.

Getting to the Uchiha compound didn't take too long, nor did getting in, as Akari was certainly easy to recognize. They did stare at the two animals on her shoulders for a few moments before letting her in, but that was to be expected. She wandered through a side-street or two, arriving at the front door and giving it a knock. Only a few seconds passed before she heard the door being opened quickly from the other side, a shock of yellow hair zipping out to hug her. "I wasn't gone that long cub."

She still ruffled his hair, lifting him up and putting him on her hip, giving him a good view of Akena. A questioning look was met with a roll of her eyes an a nod, the boy immediately reaching out to ruffle Akena's fur. The Jackal looked at her as if asking what on earth to do, but Akari was busy maneuvering into the house, kicking the door shut behind herself then sitting down, Kurama hopping off and setting beside her with his head on her thigh. Akena carefully pulled away from Naruto, looping around after getting off Akari's other shoulder and mimicking Kurama.

Settling Naruto on her lap where he could still pet Akena, Akari smiled at Kana as she came in. "Hi Kaa-san." Her mother gave her a smile, planting herself down on the other sofa. "Thanks for looking after this one again." She bumped Naruto a little, making him look up, then at Kana when she tipped her head. "I know she spoiled you for ramen again, I can smell it. So, what do you say?" He dipped his head, but still had a grin on his face.

"Thank you Kana-baachan!"

* * *

**Yeah, forgot one of the rewards that Akari received, whoops.**

**With that, I'm done. If there's something else I forgot, it's being left behind. Akari is not getting more stuff from the past.**

**So, who here expected Akari to get Jackals as a summon? I don't think a single story exists with Jackals as a summons clan. Hooray for unique-ness. Well anyway, next chapter will probably be another time-skip, I don't know quite how far I'll go with it, maybe right up to half a year before Naruto makes Genin, or maybe earlier...**

**...Probably earlier.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 78**

**Age: 16**

**Experience: 55152/78,000**

**To Next Level: 22848**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 60**

**Endurance - 60**

**Intelligence - 80**

**Agility - 166**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 60**


	39. Chapter 39 - Please Review!

**Okay, just because somebody mentioned that Chapter 9/10 confused them with how the time-skip wasn't clear, let me be 110% clear here.**

**Tiem has skipped forwards a year and a half, Naruto is now 6 and has begun at the Academy. Akari is now 17 and a half. Everybody got that? Good. If you don't get that, then I really can't help you.**

**Let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

"Naruto, if you don't get your butt down here in the next ten seconds I swear you won't even smell ramen for the next ten years!"

Leaning against the wall beside the front door, Akari counted the seconds loudly, hearing Naruto stampeding around upstairs. How he could manage to be late practically every morning she didn't know, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy that if she didn't practically laser-beam him with focus the entire morning, he would manage to be late to the Academy. "But Kaa-san, I can't find Gama-chan!"

Growling, Akari zipped up the staircase, straight into his room. "And why do you need your wallet for school? Let's see. Bento, check. Writing kit, check. Clothes..." She looked Naruto up and down. "...half-check, you need to find a new shirt, that one has a sauce stain on it." Naruto grabbed at his shirt trying to find the stain. "Under the lapel. How you managed to spill sauce there I really want to know. Anyway, workbooks, check. Jacket-" Akari went down the list with Naruto, making him actually look at each thing before tossing it wherever it needed to go, either into his backpack or onto Naruto himself.

"Now, you're going to be late if you just go normally, so we'll just take a shortcut." Smirking, Akari planted her hand on Naruto's shoulder, watching his face scrunch up in preparation as she used the Hiraishin to transport herself and Naruto to a secluded spot only a block away from the Academy. He took it like a champion, only stumbling a little.

The only reason she was comfortable enough to use it was because Naruto was a sneaky little bugger when it suited him. He was listening in one night as Akari and Kurama discussed how she could make the Hiraishin stop making her so nauseous, how it could have been because the original Jutsu was for Minato's body weight, not hers. She caught him after hearing him step backwards and step on a board too loudly, but it wasn't worth the hassle. Besides, he seemed able to keep it a secret, so Akari just decided that as a reward for his secrecy, she would use it if he needed to get somewhere quickly. He also understood that because Akari spent a lot of time around the man, it made sense that she would be able to pick up on how his Jutsu worked.

Not that she was a taxi-service. Only certain important things like being late for the admittedly half-useless Academy were on the agenda. She tousled his hair a final time, surreptitiously fixing it more than she messed it up, even as he whined. "Have a good day cub." Naruto gave her a brief hug, disappearing off towards the Academy with a grin. Closing her eyes, Akari tugged on the seal back at their home, re-emerging inside of the living room of her very own house.

It had been hard deciding to move out, but with Akena preferring to be out of the summons realm, her Genin team spending a lot of time at her apartment, as well as Deidara, Anko and her other friends crashing there every so often, the old apartment just wasn't big enough, so they moved. Akari did consider trying to find a place inside the Uchiha compound, mostly to be closer to her mother and brother, but eventually decided on a spot near the middle of the village.

Sure, the price was at a premium there, but Akari didn't use her money for much anyway, so it didn't matter. A nice three bedroom detached house with a front and back yard, the back yard being a full half-acre of space, all walled up as well. That yard was a lot of the reason why the place was so expensive, you could build quite a few houses on that space after all, but it also meant that her weekly gatherings of kids could be done from her own home.

Since it was so central to the village, nobody complained about the location change, plus it meant she could make meals there, rather than having to prepare things beforehand and bring them along. As long as she had the ingredients for it, she could cater to pretty much whatever each kid wanted.

Slumping down on her sofa, Akari chuckled to herself, remembering the time Kurama had taken the last stick of Dango, inciting a faux-war between him and Itachi, who also wanted the last stick of Dango. After Itachi spat a Gokakyu which Kurama devoured, Akari separated them and reminded them both that she could literally just make more.

Needless to say, this raised her approval in Itachi's eyes immeasurably, as anyone who could make more Dango on demand was someone sent by the heavens themselves in his eyes. When she, out of nowhere according to his eyes, made a small pile of Dango appear on the plate, Akari had to make herself scarce before the boy started planning the wedding.

...Maybe not quite that far, but he definitely liked the fact that Akari had what was basically on-demand Dango 24/7. Hana thought the whole thing was a riot of course, cackling along with her Haimaru triplets at Akari's antics. Of course, the Inuzuka girl could also sniff out the fact that Akari was getting up to a lot more than they knew, all but dragging out at least some of what Akari had been up to, starting with what the hell she did to replace her hand.

That was at least something she could discuss, but the rest? Since most of it was S-ranked, even if she wanted to tell Hana, which she didn't since it'd encourage more questions, she couldn't. That at least saved her some hassle.

Speaking of her hand, she de-activated the Kage no Te seal, watching her sleeve droop. She rolled it back and looked at her stump, quirking her lips to the side. Kurama had brought up the idea of using her Mystical Palm mastery, just to see if she could regrow her hand using it. It didn't hurt to try, so she took a Kunai and debrided the end of her stump surgically, ignoring the pain with the experience of a Kunoichi.

She placed the Kunai back in her inventory then began channelling the Mystical Palm Jutsu, her mind picturing her hand re-growing, the sinews reconnecting and forming musculature over top, along with all the veins, arteries, capillaries, everything needed for a hand. She felt her stump warm up, then...the wound she opened re-sealed.

Sighing, Akari dropped her arm, absent-mindedly reactivating her seal and flexing her hand after she got over the sensation of nerves reconnecting. It didn't work. She would, of course, try again, but from what she knew of how her entire health system worked, she wouldn't be able to repair her arm that way. Perhaps by growing a new arm out of her own cells, then grafting it onto her stump, reconnecting each painstakingly-numerous nerve, vein and other essential parts, she could make the system recognize that she was no longer crippled, but it was unlikely, plus would be highly difficult to even begin an attempt at doing that.

It wasn't like she was actively hindered by the loss of a hand, considering that the current fix used one large dump of Chakra every few months or so to keep running. Plus, even if someone smashed her left hand to pieces with a hammer, it wouldn't affect her, since she could expend 15,000 Chakra and make a brand new hand. She heard a knock at the front door, sighing to herself as she wandered over and opened it. "Oh, uh, hiya Itachi-san, did you need something?"

From his expression, it was clear that this was more serious than a mid-day Dango visit. "Akari-san, I apologize for intruding but...I don't know who else I can go to about this...may I come in?" Akari shrugged, waving the boy, not even a teenager yet, into her house, sweeping her gaze around outside with her Sharingan for a second before closing and locking the door.

She sat down on her sofa, waving a hand at the other chair as she folded her legs over. "So what's going on Itachi?" She would have made a joke about Izumi, she knew he was sweet on the girl, but the situation really didn't call for it.

"I..." He tried to begin, but seemed lost for words. Akari gave him time, merely waiting patiently as he seemed to try and come to terms with the words he wanted to say. "The Uchiha..." He paused again. "My father and the other influential clan members are planning a coup to take over Konoha." Blinking, Akari looked at the floor.

She wasn't particularly surprised by that fact since she already knew that the Uchiha were planning a coup. The Hokage had told her that fact almost two years ago, it was why she was at least trying to keep an eye on the Uchiha. Shisui was meant to be helping, but the clan seemed pretty steadfast in their route even he couldn't dissuade them. Added to the fact he now only had one eye made his Kotoamatsukami not viable, as he could only use it occasionally. there were far too many members of the coup, changing the mind of only one or two would never stop them, and they'd likely point their fingers to him as the culprit.

Deciding to just be up-front with the boy, she looked at his eyes. "I know." She watched him draw a Kunai swiftly, though to her and her heightened speed...it wasn't that fast. "I'm not in support of it Itachi, the Hokage told me about it. We've been trying to find out a way to stop it from happening, but the clan knows me to be out of their sphere of influence, so I can't really do much, and neither can he." Though still visibly wary, Itachi put his blade away, though Akari noticed something amusing. "So, ANBU huh?"

His eyes widened in surprise as Akari brought it up, though she raised her hand and flexed it, making him realize his faux pas. He'd drawn and holstered his Kunai in the same way an ANBU would do. Sure, it could have been shrugged off as merely similar, but the fact he also holstered it the same way sealed the deal. "A month ago." He admitted, his eyes shaded as he stared at her table.

"Hmm, I don't know why the Hokage never suggested ANBU to me, it fits my skill-set pretty well, plus it's not like I'm much to care about killing people when I need to. Whatever. So why did you come to me Itachi? You could have gone to the Hokage." He shook his head. "Why not?"

Tipping his head up to stare at Akari, Itachi faltered. She could see the thoughts running through his head. The Hokage was the logical choice in this situation, he held enough power to potentially nip the coup in the bud. Thanks to Danzo being dead, his other two advisors found themselves flat-footed, giving him a solid opening to do as he pleased, which included simply making the lives of the Uchiha better.

But they had to have an excuse. They had to have some reason to do so. Simply improving the lives of the Uchiha clan would merely invite suspicion about why the village was suddenly being so supportive to the clan they'd scorned. But, if the Clan Head's son and heir went to the Hokage and informed him of the discontent within the Uchiha, it would give the old man an excuse for a meeting with Fugaku. If Itachi was also there, and in front of his father revealed their plans for a coup, only for the Hokage to then play the angered but still amicable village-leader, perhaps Fugaku could be brought down from his plans of a coup.

"Let's go tell him then." Akari said with a smile.

* * *

Though he hid it well, Akari could tell that the Hokage was surprised by her plan.

"Akari-san, the plan is not bad, I just worry that Fugaku may not react in the way you hope. He has been allowing this coup planning to continue for the last two years at least, which might make him react in violence when it's revealed the village now know of the treachery of the Uchiha Clan." Rubbing at her cheek, Akari had to admit the Hokage had a point.

But, at the same time, even if she wasn't really much of a member, she was still a part of the Uchiha Clan. "Well, we can't just let them continue. The longer this goes on, the closer they get to a plan which will give them control over Konoha, something I'm sure you'd prefer to avoid if you wished to keep your head on your shoulders. Though maybe you allow it so you can finally get that hat off your head. Honestly, it looks so ridiculous."

Hiruzen chuckled at that. Even in the face of what could potentially be the end of her Clan, Akari could still crack a joke. "Well, as your shoulders are unwilling to hold this hat up, I find myself at a loss for good candidates." Humming her assent to his words, Akari tried to think of an alternative plan, one that would guarantee the Uchiha Clan backed down from their idea of a coup.

"Maybe we could try to incorporate...no, they'd see through it and grow even more suspicious." She was going to suggest getting more Uchiha into the ranks of the Shinobi and out of the Uchiha Military Police Force, but they would likely see through that idea. "...Why don't you think of something Hokage-sama? You're supposed to be the professor after all. because I'll be honest, outside of my original plan, I've got nothing."

Hiruzen puffed at his pipe idly. "Your original plan would work so long as you could ensure that Fugaku would back down, or that we would be able to subdue him should he grow violent." Akari gave the Hokage a dead-pan look. If he really thought she couldn't handle one single man, he obviously hadn't been paying attention to her growth.

In the last year and a half, through quests, kills and general experience gains, Akari had managed to grind 34 entire levels. That put her all the way up to level 112, with 170 points. She'd evened her stats out at 70, with her Intelligence being raised by ten points to match her Wisdom. That left her with 130 extra points to push into her Agility, for a grand total of 296 Agility Points.

She had tried to control her speed without use of her Sharingan, but so far, she could handle maybe 30% speed before it was simply too fast. The upside? She was so used to moving at high-speeds that when she did use her Sharingan, controlling her speed was a cinch. The downside? She was probably never going to be able to control her full speed without the aid of her Sharingan, especially if she kept raising her Agility.

Deciding to prove a point, Akari activated her Sharingan, dropping her mental limit on her speed and zipping in a circle around Hiruzen's desk. When she stopped, she had her arms full of random thing's she'd grabbed from around his office, a cheeky grin on her face. To the other people in the room, it was the blink of an eye. "I don't think that'll be a problem Hokage-sama." Releasing a lungful of smoke, the Hokage smiled back at her.

"I suppose not Akari-chan."

* * *

From her place sat cross-legged beside the Hokage's desk, Akari had to stop herself from tipping side to side in boredom.

She'd been sat there shrouded in the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu for at least a half-hour so far, which was totally not her schtick. She could do it, but she would certainly not be happy to be doing it. It was why her missions were so much more action-focused. She was pretty much a one-woman wrecking ball that Konoha could use to smash its enemies.

She cracked her neck and suppressed another groan. Fortunately enough, an ANBU member chose that moment to hop in through the window, just as Akari began considering playing a verbal game of tic-tac-toe with Kurama to pass the time. "Hokage-sama, Fugaku-san is currently on his way here. His son is following him." The Hokage accepted their report with a curt nod.

"Allow them passage. When they enter this room, I want all ANBU, including Wolf, the leave the room, to which I shall then activate my privacy seals. This is an S-ranked secret, and I want no questions asked. Understood?" The ANBU gave a curt salute and vanished with a swirl of leaves, leaving the Hokage mumbling. "Why can nobody use the damn door any more?" Akari decided to whisper her response to the old man.

"Well, I came in using it." And got a mild glare but an amused chuckle from the man, even as he began focusing on his paperwork again, just to look as though he weren't using this as an excuse to slack off. His secretary would certainly punish him with extra work as well as 'misfiling' certain reports, just to be a nuisance. He might be the most visibly-feared Shinobi in Konoha, but he had nothing on a pissed-off ex-Kunoichi.

After a few minutes, his intercom went off, the secretary informing him that Uchiha's Fugaku and Itachi had arrived, and were requesting to see him, though the word request was audibly strained. "Let them in, then take a ten-minute break please Asha-san." As he spoke, the twin doors were pushed open, Fugaku walking in with a carefully-composed face.

To her Sharingan though, she could see the minute twitches that gave away his anger at whatever Itachi had told him. Taking this moment, Akari decided to observe the man who was the Head of her Clan, finding him...lacking. He was level 71. Only two levels above Hiashi, who had levelled up once in the year and a half since she'd first met him. Itachi, by comparison, was a level 53, which made the fact he became an ANBU even more impressive. Evidently, levels weren't everything, but they still gave her a very solid a gauge to judge strength with.

"Hokage-sama, a...matter has been brought to my attention by my son." The Hokage waved his hand at the chair in front of his desk, which Fugaku took, though he appeared slightly reluctant. Akari covered her mouth to avoid snickering at the next part. The original plan had been amended just a little so Fugaku wouldn't come expecting a fight. "He told me you have also signed off on his...request."

The words were all but forced from his mouth. Though it would have been funny to continue the charade, it was decided that they would keep Fugaku on the back-foot as much as possible. "Let us not beat around the bush Fugaku-san, we know about the coup." Credit to the man, he didn't leap up with a Kunai in hand, ready to battle. He looked between Hiruzen and Itachi, releasing a sigh of pure exhaustion.

"So...that's how this is then Hokage-sama?" The man didn't say anything, merely puffed on his pipe as he observed Fugaku. "Is this to be the end of the Uchiha clan then? After years of supporting Konoha, putting up with our ostracization, all of it?" The Hokage furrowed his brows, his anger audible as he spoke.

"And yet, did you ever once make mention of this fact? Did you ever even attempt to speak to me about this, as amicable humans from one to another, and what I could do to aid your clan? No, you decided to believe that I would simply take your words as excuse to further ostracize your clan. The clan, mind you, that brought Konoha's strongest Shinobi into our mix." Though nobody could see it, Akari grinned.

Sure, it wasn't really something the Uchiha's did, the Game was responsible, but her mother was still a member of that clan, so it was fair to say the Uchiha clan was partly responsible for her strength. "Would you really have done so five years ago when the rumour first spread of our culpability in the attack by the Kyuubi?" Akari was glad that she'd left Kurama at home, he wouldn't have been happy to hear that.

"Of course I would have!" Hiruzen's yell even startled Akari, she wasn't expecting him to get so angry at Fugaku's words. "You know how I've protected your clan in the past. How Danzo and my other two 'advisors' blunted my aid on every turn, forcing my focus to other areas just as important, while you stirred in discontent, unwilling to publicly and directly ask for my aid, since it would be 'beneath you.' I have swallowed my pride for Konoha numerous times, but is your image so valuable that you can't stand the thought of simply asking for my aid?"

Watching carefully as Fugaku and Hiruzen went back and forth, Akari gave herself a moment to look at Itachi. He was holding himself together well, as expected of the Uchiha Prodigy, making it to ANBU at twelve was impressive after all. Hiruzen slamming his hand on the desk pulled her attention back towards the on-going conversation. Fugaku had activated his Sharingan at some point during the argument, though Hiruzen wasn't afraid of making direct eye contact. Even if Fugaku had the gall to attempt a Genjutsu, Akari was there to knock him unconscious and break the Jutsu.

Of course, Fugaku didn't know that, but he did know that the room was surrounded by ANBU, which was what likely stayed his hand. The fact their voices were lowering was a good sign. Right now they were discussing exactly what needed to be done, since, in all honesty, neither side wanted a coup to occur. Fugaku and his clansmen felt forced to pick between destruction or domination, whereas Hiruzen had his hands tied in terms of helping them, when by the time he was free to aid them, all his aid would do was cast suspicion on his actions.

The first sign that something was wrong however, was when Hiruzen stopped talking in the middle of his sentence. At the same time, Fugaku drew a Kunai, suddenly lunging at his surprised son. Though it took a moment for her to shake off her surprise at the sudden attack, Akari drew her daggers, only for Hiruzen to charge at her, forcing her out of the Kiri-Woka with a flurry of attacks.

Akari cursed as she realized what the Genjutsu actually was, leaping sideways to avoid his Taijutsu strikes, then flipping over on one hand and activating her Sharingan, which some way into the negotiations she had disabled to save her Chakra. As soon as she did so she could see the foreign Chakra in his system. But, what was peculiar, as she dodged another strike, was that Fugaku showed signs of chakra in his system which weren't his own.

She couldn't afford to be distracted though, not against Hiruzen, and certainly not when she couldn't afford to injure him. She parried a Kunai strike with her knife, stepping into Hiruzen's guard as she dropped her weapon into her inventory, then looping her arms around his own, her legs around his neck. Completing the hold, Akari used her weight to force his down to the ground, tightening her legs on his wind-pipe and choking the old man out. As he suffocated, he tried to use hand-seals, but a sudden adjustment of her weight smashed his head against the ground, disorienting him long enough for him to finally run out of oxygen and pass out.

As soon as she was certain he was out for the count, Akari released the man, mumbling an apology even as she drew her knives again and hurried across the office to where Itachi was surprisingly holding his own against his father, though he was breathing in ragged gasps, a large cut running across one hand, and one of his eyes was winking closed, purple bruising visible on the cheek below.

Leaping, Akari slammed her feet into the back of Fugaku's head, smashing him to the ground brutally. As he bounced back up, Akari was already there and ready for him, a knee on his spine as she wrapped an arm around his throat, wary in case he tried to wrap an arm around himself and stab at her. Itachi was right there as his father snatched a Kunai from somewhere, quickly trapping his arms as Akari choked out the second person of that day.

As Fugaku's eyes closed and he also fell into unconsciousness, Akari released her hold after a few more moments, slumping back with an exhale. "...This is going to be a bitch to explain." She mumbled. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Itachi laughed. After a moment, she giggled as well, eventually falling onto her back as she caught her breath. A rustling of fabric made her immediately bolt to a standing position faster than Itachi could blink, her knives raised then lowered as she saw the Hokage coming to.

She was still wary, but her Sharingan couldn't pick up any of the foreign chakra which was presumably the cause for his sudden attack. "Akari-chan...what happened?" She scratched her head sheepishly.

"Uhh, I wasn't careful enough, so Fugaku got an opportunity to use a Genjutsu of some kind on you. But, he didn't seem to be doing it willingly, he also has foreign chakra in his system, though it was really faint, somebody had implanted the Genjutsu a long time ago." Palming her chin, Akari tried to dredge up anything she had on Genjutsu but came up blank. "That's all I've got, I don't really know Genjutsu." Looking over the Hokage quickly for injuries, Akari then went over and offered to heal Itachi's wounds, which he accepted gratefully.

"I am...proficient in Genjutsu." Itachi spoke calmly as Akari healed him, even if he was clearly still a little frazzled from being attacked by his father like that. "It was likely a conditional mind-control Genjutsu, designed to react to certain detrimental situations. Rather, detrimental to the original user." As Akari healed him, he discussed with the Hokage about what it could have been.

Since the man was known as the Professor, his own Genjutsu knowledge was certainly not limited, but all their talk went pretty much straight over Akari's head. Genjutsu was the one skill she really hadn't put any effort into learning. It sounded strong, she supposed, but not something fun, or really what she wanted to even do. It was the same reason she didn't do other things people would deem smart, like keeping her stats at sensibly-balanced levels. She wanted to have fun.

Plus, with where she was right now, as evidenced from the fact she just 1v1'd the Hokage and won without a scratch, even if he was under a Genjutsu, she was still plenty strong. As Fugaku began showing signs of waking up, Akari quickly pulled out some sealing paper, scrawling possibly the worst paralysis tag she'd ever written, quickly slapping it onto his neck.

It wouldn't last long, ten minutes at best, but it would suffice. "Fugaku-san, are you yourself again?" Hiruzen spoke diplomatically, but received nothing in response, even as Fugaku's eyes opened. She could see peripherally that they were the blood-red of the Sharingan still, and from the fact he wasn't talking, alongside the slivers of Chakra she still saw in his network, he was still being influenced by a Genjutsu.

"This could be a more severe problem than we presumed, Hokage-sama." Itachi was the one who spoke first, a frown set on his lips. "If the Genjutsu lasts through an unconsciousness, it's extremely powerful. If this Genjutsu has now trapped Fugaku-san like this, the Uchiha clan will be baying for blood." He knelt down to look at his father with empty eyes, evidently from his words his ANBU personality had come through to protect him.

Hiruzen sat down behind his desk after righting his fallen chair, lifting his smouldering pipe and muttering when he noted that his tobacco had burnt away. "They need a scapegoat..." Akari mumbled, shamelessly sitting down on the floor with her legs crossed as she palmed her chin. "If we give them a target, somebody to focus on, then their anger will be redirected.

"But who? We don't know who originally inflicted this Genjutsu upon Fugaku-san, so we don't have a viable target." Hiruzen spoke bluntly. The problem was exactly that, who had cast the Genjutsu? It had to be somebody who was either well-placed enough, or simply skilled enough, to reach Fugaku every so often to ensure the Genjutsu still held him.

"Well we can't paint it as somebody from Iwa, Kumo or another village, the Uchiha would never believe it." Hiruzen nodded along to her obvious words. "Danzo and the advisors are out, since he's dead and they are, no offence, spineless without him." The Hokage gave a grim frown, he didn't like to be reminded of his 'failure' as he put it. "Of course, Orochimaru would also be a great scapegoat...whoops." Sighing, Akari looked up at the Hokage's eyes.

"So...what about me?"

* * *

**Please...tell me if you guys think this is a good idea.**

**I think this could be the start of a really...sad but beautiful arc for this story. But, as with 273, I might be totally wrong, people might hate it, so PLEASE, tell me your brutally honest opinions in the reviews. If you think this is dumb and I should amend it, tell me now before I start going down this road and make the story something you won't enjoy reading.**

**I adore writing, but if people all loathe my work, then the point is lost, at least a little. Even if the world hates my stories, I'd still write, simply because I enjoy writing so much, but...it'd definitely put me off a little.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 112**

**Age: 17**

**Experience: 71,732/112,000**

**To Next Level: 40,268**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 25,000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 4900/m - 81.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 70**

**Endurance - 70**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 70**


	40. Chapter 40

**This is coming out early I know, and...wow, 40 chapters already? It feels like a few months ago I was writing chapter 1...**

**Thanks so much for the reviews though boos! I absolutely adore reading all your opinions and neat ideas! Seriously, some people bring up points that are just awesome! I'm sorry if this doesn't go the way you were hoping, but since people were of split opinions, and I am truly sorry to have to say this, I can't make everybody happy with my decision...**

**I mean, I could write two separate versions of War Dog, but then for every decision I made with differing outcomes, I'd have to write offshoot after offshoot...it's not feasible, unfortunately.**

_**Chapter 40**_

* * *

"Akari-chan, there may be an alternative."

Peering at the Hokage, Akari tried to think of another way to deal with their issue. The problem was the lack of a tangible threat to blame things on. The Uchiha, as well as Konoha in general, needed a place to put their anger, their focus. They couldn't blame whoever originally caused everything because they don't know who did it. "Hokage-sama...what do you have in mind? Because I really struggle to think of another solution."

The man gestured at Fugaku's paralyzed body, a fresh, superiorly-written tag on his nape. "A sufficiently-skilled Yamanaka can delve through his memories to discover the truth. He would have to go back a long way, but I'm sure one as skilled as, say, Inoichi-san, would be able to do so." Tipping her head to the side, Akari considered it.

If a Yamanaka could provide a sketch of who it was to originally use the Genjutsu, as well as testify that it was absolutely truthful, that would solve their problems. it would also cover why Fugaku was attacked, why he was trying to initiate a coup, and inform the Uchiha that somebody is subverting them, turning their clan against the village. "I guess so. Heck, that works for me, I didn't want to have to leave Naruto or my team behind, not for however long it'd take to find whoever was the true culprit."

"Indeed, losing you would also be a great loss to Konoha." Akari rubbed her neck sheepishly as Hiruzen reached for his intercom. "Asha-san, have you returned yet?" There was a brief pause before the secretary responded. "I would like you to send one of my ANBU to go and retrieve Yamanaka Inoichi from the Torture and Interrogation department, then bring him here. he is not being detained, he is required in conjunction with the ongoing S-ranked secret, understood?"

The secretary gave a curt response and disconnected. After a few moments, Kurama saw fit to pipe up. **"You could also just summon a Genjutsu master using your Mangekyo and have them dis-assemble the Genjutsu on that Uchiha, who could then answer your question himself."** Blinking, Akari swore to herself repeatedly, much to Hiruzen's amusement as she rubbed her face with the hell of her hand.

"Uhh, Hokage-sama...I-...Kurama figured out another possible solution...but it involves something I really wanted to keep a secret, even...from you." The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"I presume this secret is not something you kept secret out of malice?" Akari shook her head.

"No, I only wanted to keep this a secret because of how dangerously powerful and binding this ability is. If this became public knowledge...I would probably be spending the rest of my life running from people." The man took a puff of his pipe, concealing his expression in smoke for a brief moment.

As the smoke cleared, he'd made his decision. "We will allow Inoichi-san to attempt to retrieve the identity of who cast this Genjutsu. If he is successful, I will still like to be told of this ability, if only to know it in future. If you wish it, it could be added to the Forbidden Scroll. If he is unsuccessful, you may attempt whatever your plan is. if neither attempt is successful, we shall have to find an alternative solution."

As Akari opened her mouth, the Hokage shut her up with a glare. "You are far too valuable to Konoha to be sacrificed like a pawn. You are the Jinchuriki of Kurama, you possess the Kusanagi, the means to produce Golan-seals, with an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, exceptional Iryo-nin proficiency, and are one of the last Fuinjutsu masters living to boot. In lieu of these skills, even I would be a more viable sacrifice. Besides, you said it yourself, to many people, that you have no experience whatsoever with Genjutsu, Akari-chan."

Akari snapped her jaw shut with a click. Those were all true...maybe she was being just a tiny bit hasty in thinking she was still something which could be freely sacrificed. Recalling Bao's speech about family from...almost two years ago now, she realized she probably wouldn't have actually been able to leave, not without taking Naruto along with her.

But then, as she thought about it, her family wasn't just Naruto any more. She had her mother and brother of course, but she saw Deidara like a brother, Komachi and Anko as her sisters, even her team as little nieces and nephews. "Sorry." She mumbled, getting a nip on her ear-lobe by Kurama for being an idiot.

Hey, nobody ever said she was the smartest tool in the box, just the toughest and scariest.

* * *

"...I don't even want to begin compiling an idea of what happened here."

From her place on the sofa with her feet up, Akari grinned as Inoichi stepped into the room. Fugaku was unconscious again, this time caused by a seal, one that stopped him from moving but kept him breathing and doing all the normal living things. Itachi was also sat on the sofa, looking right as rain compared to his previously-battered face, nibbling on a plate of Dango. To set the final piece, Hiruzen was sat behind his desk diligently working through paperwork. Seriously, the man was a machine. "Hiya Inoichi!" Akari chirped with an exaggerated wave, getting a confused look in response before the man faced the Hokage.

The old Kage didn't need any prompting to explain exactly what Inoichi was needed for. "Inoichi-san, thank you for coming on such short notice. Now, I understand you are currently regarded as the best Yamanaka in your clan techniques?" The blonde gave his confident but not arrogant agreement to that statement, it was the truth after all. "Fugaku-san here has been afflicted with a Genjutsu. We need to know who was the original caster. Since he doesn't seem willing or capable to tell us who originally ensnared him, we require his memories to be observed directly."

The Yamanaka furrowed his brow. "Hokage-sama, that may be...difficult. If the Genjutsu is still afflicting Fugaku-san, then it's extremely likely that his very memories have been tampered with to hide the original Genjutsu user." Akari chose that moment to pipe up.

"What if the Genjutsu got disabled somehow? Would that make it easier to retrieve the memory?" Inoichi faced her and nodded.

"That would make retrieval far easier, since his memories would be being actively suppressed by the Genjutsu. With the Genjutsu no longer suppressing those memories, they would become far easier to track down, as they would no longer be being suppressed and hidden from my view." The Hokage cleared his throat, bringing their attention back to him easily.

"We shall have you try first Inoichi-san, and if you cannot locate the memories, Akari-chan will attempt a technique to break the Genjutsu." He neatly intervened, earning a happy smile from Akari. She did still want to keep Megami no Mon a secret from as many as she could, though if it were revealed to everyone present, Fugaku excluded of course, she wouldn't be too unhappy. She had a feeling Inoichi and Itachi could both keep a secret with the best of them, and of course Hiruzen was the Hokage, he would have to know either way now that she'd informed him that she had a second ability.

Without fanfare, the Yamanaka got to work, crouching down beside Fugaku and placing a hand on his head, his eyes shut.

* * *

**"My win."**

Bored, Akari yawned, wiping her mental board clear and starting another game of four-in-a-row with Kurama. Inoichi had been working away for at least an hour now, and it showed, as his face was strained, a bead of sweat occasionally running down the side of his head. To pass the time, she'd eventually give in and started playing board games with Kurama.

Since she didn't want to look silly playing a board game with what looked like herself, she and he merely played by speaking what locations they were going to play. It gave him a big opportunity to cheat seeing as his memory was far superior than her, but even if he was cheating his ass off, Akari didn't care, she just wanted time to pass faster. That was why she hadn't entered her mindscape to actually physically play with him, it would slow time down even further.

She cast another look over at Inoichi, then around the rest of the room. Itachi was slowly and methodically picking apart each stick of Dango she'd dumped onto the table, while the Hokage was working away again at paperwork. How he could write so much every single day and not be complaining about his fingers she really didn't know, wincing as she recalled exactly how sore her hands were after one of Kushina's calligraphy...'lessons'.

When Inoichi moved, she saw it instantly, watching warily, just in case the Genjutsu had a defence mechanism of some kind. She didn't know if a Genjusu even could protect itself, but she didn't want to take a risk. Fortunately enough, she couldn't see any foreign Chakra in him, so he was good to go. His face didn't exactly look like the face of a victorious man though. "I presume you couldn't find the memory Inoichi-san?"

The Hokage's voice was calm, understanding. Inoichi had, after all, warned them that finding the memory might be impossible if it were well-hidden. After all, Yamanaka's relied on certain mental triggers to find memories, otherwise they'd simply be swimming in a tide of old and new memories. If those triggers were disabled by the Genjutsu, finding one memory out of all of Fugaku's memories would take a literal lifetime. He shook his head. "Unfortunately not Hokage-sama. The Genjutsu has disabled many triggers to even mundane memories, adding false memories and triggers to cover the lost time. Even with a dozen of my clan, we would still take upwards of a year to locate the memory, at best."

Sighing, the Hokage turned to look at Akari. Without prompting, she hopped up from her chair, her eyes lazily swirling with her Mangekyo. "Right, well...I just want to warn you all...don't freak out." The old man raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything, Akari mumbled two words, clearly audible to everybody in the room. "Uchiha Madara."

A smoke cloud erupted from the ground, after a moment fading away to reveal the man in all his former glory. He was wearing his armour, probably because he died in it fighting Hashirama, or at least that was how she recalled the Academy teaching her. "Akari-chan..." She ignored the Hokage briefly.

"Deny free will." She spoke, since considering the man stood before her had betrayed the village and tried to kill the Shodai Hokage, he probably wouldn't be amicable to helping them. "He won't be able to do anything without my command, I don't think he'll even be aware he's been brought back, I haven't done any real testing with this ability. Madara, please attempt to remove the Genjutsu on Uchiha Fugaku." The armoured man nodded once curtly, then stepped towards the unconscious Fugaku and raised a hand towards him, his eyes red with Sharingan.

She could feel the surprise in the room, after all it wasn't every day someone revealed they could bring back the dead, even if only for a short period. "While...Madara-san works on that Genjutsu, would you mind please explaining this ability Akari-chan?" Sighing, Akari slumped down onto a sofa.

"Well, it's called Megami no Mon. Basically, I can choose any spectre from the Pure Lands who I know by way of name and face, then bring them back. If I wanted, I could bring back Senju Hashirama. But it's not without drawbacks. It drains me of 25% of my Chakra Pool, they only last for 100 minutes, and they're only twice as strong as I am, which means they aren't their normal strength. I mean, I'd like to say I'm now strong enough that these Spectres are stronger than their original versions, but that's only in how much Chakra they have." Hiruzen puffed on a pipe, his eyes not leaving Madara's back as he worked.

"And that part about denying free will?" Itachi piped up, making Akari jump a little. He could be sneaky and unobtrusive when he wanted, the little weasel.

"I can also give them free will. So if I wanted Madara to tell me what his plans were when attacking Hashirama, I'd have to give him free-will, since without that, they can't speak for some reason, even if I order them to talk to me." She shrugged. It was annoying, yes, but not the end of the world. Besides, people like Tobirama were willing enough to talk to her about things, so it didn't matter too much to her.

As Hiruzen opened his mouth to ask something else, Madara suddenly righted himself, stepping away from Fugaku and crossing his arms. "Inoichi-san, I think he's done. Or at least done what he can." To his credit, Inoichi shook his head and became the T&I head again seamlessly, ignoring how bizarre the situation was in favor of retrieving the information that they needed.

They could have just waited for Fugaku to wake up after removing the seal then tell them himself, but the testimony of a Yamanaka as to the veracity of Fugaku's claims would be invaluable in swaying public opinion. Or she hoped it would, otherwise things were going to get...nasty. She dismissed Madara casually, not wanting to keep him around. He'd done what he could, if Fugaku's memories still couldn't be accessed, then they'd hit a road-block in that area. Maybe Hashirama could do something, as apparently the man was immune to Genjutsu somehow, but from what she'd read, as well as what Tobirama had off-handedly mentioned...he was a bit more free-spirited than Akari would like. He probably never looked into why, just accepting that it was a fact.

"...That's impossible." Blinking, Akari looked at Inoichi, who had stumbled backwards a step. "Hokage-sama, according to Fugaku-san's memories, Uchiha Madara is the one who placed this Genjutsu on him in the first place. But Madara was dead long before he could have placed this Genjutsu." The Hokage looked at her, but she just shrugged.

"If you want to ask him yourself, I'd have to give him free-will, which grants him a Chakra pool twice the size of mine, as well as the will to do as he'd please with it. If he was the one to set that Genjutsu, he was in for the long-con of taking down Konoha." Nodding once, the man gave himself a moment to think by puffing at his pipe, exhaling slowly.

He lowered the pipe to a holder, meshing his fingers together under his chin. "What did this...'Uchiha Madara' look like?" Inoichi described him with a black and orange mask, black cloak, with a tuft of black hair at the top of his head. But then he brought up an interesting point. After seeing Madara in the flesh, and comparing him to Inoichi's memories of the man, he was...far smaller and shorter than he should have been. Since he didn't seem crippled in the memory, still moving just as effectively as ever, the height disparity confused him.

**"WAIT A MINUTE! An orange mask he says?!"** Akari winced as Kurama furiously yelled out, to which he toned his voice down, though still clearly angered. **"That night...the Uchiha who controlled me had an orange mask!"** Akari relayed Kurama's words to the rest of the room. **"Perhaps...you could bring back the one who helped seal me into you, as I recall, he fought the man when trying to fend me off."**

Akari again relayed Kurama's words. "I can do it, Megami no Mon can be used three times in a 24-hour period." The Hokage gave his assent to her action, leaving her speaking Minato's name and picturing his face. For the second time that day smoke emerged in the Hokage's office, concealing Minato's arrival. "Grant free will." Since she knew Minato wouldn't attack her or do anything silly, she was comfortable doing so, quickly giving the surprised man a hug. "Heya Minato."

He returned her hug, though he had a confused look on his face as he peered around. "H-hiruzen-sama?!" He squawked, looking around the room again before focusing on Akari. "Akari-chan, what...what's going on?" She released her hug, stepping back with a sheepish rub at her neck.

"We, uhh...kinda need your help. Apparently Fugaku over there got a Genjutsu cast on him ages ago which made him try to start a coup. I brought Madara in and got him to release the Genjutsu, but apparently he was the one to cast it according to Fugaku's memories. Inoichi noticed though that there were disparities between the Madara I summoned and the Madara in his memories. He mentioned the fact that 'Madara' was wearing an orange mask, which Kurama realized was the same as apparently a guy you fought on the same night as when you sealed him?" Minato followed her words like a champ, eventually palming his chin.

"True, I did fight a man wearing an orange mask that night. But...I don't think it was Uchiha Madara I fought. If it was, the man must have been going senile. He fought in a simplistic manner, relying on his strange ability to avoid attacks and attempt to attack me with it. The Madara I know from what I've read and been told would have put up a far greater fight than that." He then realized something, his head twitching in one direction. "Akari-chan, you say you summoned Uchiha Madara, and that your ability only allows you to summon those who are dead?" She shrugged, but nodded all the same to both questions. "Then I know it cannot be the same Madara. I can feel my Hiraishin marker on the one who attacked me. He's still alive and moving around."

Huffing, Akari gestured with one arm at Fugaku. "It still doesn't solve exactly who the masked man is though. We need a target for the Uchiha clan to focus on, someone responsible for this all. Simply telling them it was a man with an orange mask won't placate them, they need someone to rally against." Hiruzen cleared his throat at that moment.

"You leave that to me Akari-chan, I'll find a way to make the Uchiha clan believe what I have to say. No doubt thanks to the Genjutsu no longer afflicting Fugaku-san, he will be far more amicable to trying to prevent this coup. If even he tells his clan of what has occurred, they will have no choice but to believe us." He took a puff of his pipe. "To say their Clan Head is incorrect would be...incredibly foolish."

"Now then Akari-chan, you can tell me what on earth is going on." She rolled her eyes at Minato...this was going to take a while.

* * *

After she finally finished explaining her ability to Hiruzen and why she'd given up the secret, she checked the clock and blanched.

"Uhh, Hokage-sama, can I-" He cut her off with a smile, waving his hand at the door. "Thank you!" She chirped, zipping out of the room after giving Minato a final quick hug. She was in a bit of a hurry because about twenty minutes ago was when she was supposed to meet her team, it had completely slipped her mind. She darted across Konoha in record time, arriving in the trees above her three Genin after only perhaps a single minute, deciding to take a page from Kakashi's habits of lying. "Sorry I'm late kits, I got distracted summoning Uchiha Madara and then the Yondaime Hokage."

It was outlandish, totally unbelievable, and yet, exactly what happened. "Yeah right Sensei, and I'm the owner of Yakiniku Q!" Aiko yelled up at her. She hooked her legs around the branch and flipped so she was upside down, her head at the same height as her Genin.

"Does this look like the face of a liar?" She made sure to give her biggest grin, though lost it when Aiko proclaimed that yes, it was the face of a liar. "Alright, let's get on with this. Tachiko, are you going to try those Senbon I recommended?" The girl nodded. "Good. Aiko, I'm sure I don't need to tell you what you need to work on?" He sheepishly rubbed his neck, he was doing Chakra control exercises. "And Hikaru, you wanted to show me a Jutsu right?" He shook his head. "Oh, right, that was yesterday..."

"Honestly Sensei, how can you be so forgetful sometimes, but still remember stuff like hand seals?" Tachiko jabbed her, though she ignored the verbal prod in favor of dropping to the floor, flipping casually in midair to land on her feet, though her Genin weren't as impressed as they would have been a year ago. Casually using her speed wore off it's expressiveness after being exposed to it for so long. "Hikaru wanted to show you his Fuinjutsu today, remember?"

Akari tipped her head to the side. "Isn't that still a Jutsu though? Honestly kits, why do you lie to me so?" She spoke with a faux-dramatic voice, dropping her arms when her Genin all gave her deadpan looks. "Ugh fine, whatever. You two, go do your stuff. Hikaru, what exactly do you have to show me then?" He unveiled a scroll from one of his pouches, rolling it out in front of himself. "Oh damn. That's...actually kinda impressive for only spending a year learning."

What he'd done was taken the standard explosive tag, one most Shinobi could recognize. Then, he'd doubled the explosive yield, added a fail-safe which could be remotely triggered to deactivate the tag, plus compressed it to about two-thirds of the original size. That was maybe equivalent to the skill of a level-10 Fuinjutsu Proficiency, wich suggested that he was slightly inclined towards the technique.

All of her Genin had give Fuinjutsu a shot, but Aiko was, well, Aiko, and Tachiko expressly stated that she had no interest in learning Calligraphy, even for such a powerful branch of Jutsu. Hikaru was the only one interested in Fuinjutsu, so she gave him any of the books Naruto had already devoured. Mind if I...?" She spun a Kunai around her finger for emphasis, Hikaru nodding and giving her the tag.

Akari bound it to the end of the Kunai, then picked a target, one of the training dummies about fifty feet away. Exhaling, she stepped forward, hurling the Kunai at a shallow arc, at the same time her fingers, alight with Chakra, brushed the end of the tag, activating the seal timer. As the Kunai thudded into the wood with a loud thunk, she crossed her arms and waited.

A few seconds passed before the tag fizzled out, reaching the end of the fuze and erupting in a fireball, incinerating the target entirely. "Impressive. Your storage bridge line was a little wonky, so the output wasn't quite optimal, but all in all, a good seal, well done Hikaru." The Genin avoided her gaze, though the smile on his lips told her all she needed to know.

"Thank you Akari-sensei."

* * *

**So, I asked, you answered, and here we are.**

**Akari isn't leaving Konoha, there are just way too many reasons she shouldn't, as well as ways around a Genjutsu, even an old and strong one. She didn't absolutely have to reveal Megami no Mon, I'm sure Kurenai or some other Genjutsu master/mistress would be able to do it, but it means she can be a bit more free about revealing it, especially with how strong she now is, able to fend off enemies quite easily. She's just worried someone will kidnap Naruto to force her into using it since he can't protect himself. But if the secrets coming out anyway...it means she can finally show him what she's wanted to for years...**

**Thanks for reading though!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 112**

**Age: 17**

**Experience: 71,732/112,000**

**To Next Level: 40,268**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 25,000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 4900/m - 81.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 70**

**Endurance - 70**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 70**


	41. Chapter 41

**Just as an FYI, Kurama's situation right now is this.**

**His actual 'body' is sealed within Akari's seal. His consciousness, however, is inhabiting a 'familiar', a body made from his Chakra which he's allowed to control. Akari did this for him so he could experience the world again, having spent more than a dozen years at absolute minimum isolated from everything. ****Hope that clears things up!**

**Also, please don't look at this as a filler chapter. I'm not filling time, I'm trying to give good ways for Akari to think about things she's done, explaining how she's grown in the past year and a half timeskip. She also gets a reason to address her own look, so you can see how she's changed things around.**

_**Chapter 41**_

* * *

"Naruto, could you come here please?"

Akari had decided that, after she visited the Hokage a second time to detail how Megami no Mon worked...it was time. Time for Naruto to meet his mother. She could hear his footsteps walking along the hallway upstairs, then coming down the steps and around the corner into the living room. "What's up Kaa-san?" She patted the sofa beside her, gathering her thoughts as he sat down, folding his legs over to sit cross-legged and stare at her.

"Naruto, if...hmm." She thought for a moment. "If you could meet your mother, your birth mother that is...would you want to? Knowing she wouldn't be able to stay around, would you still want to meet her, at least once?" Looking at his face, Akari knew she'd confused Naruto with her random question.

But, just as she'd raised him, he took the question seriously, owing to the serious atmosphere Akari was exuding. "If I could meet her once...I would want to." he settled, looking at Akari in the face, though he still displayed visible confusion. "But why would you ask, Kaa-san? You told me yourself that she passed away when Kurama was forced to attack Konoha." Smiling softly, she brushed a little of his hair.

"She did. Recently I had to make a call, reveal an ability of mine I'd much rather have kept hidden for a while longer, or let my clan fall into anarchy, potentially even to their end. So...I chose to reveal something that, if the wrong people knew about it, could make me the most hunted Kunoichi across the Elemental Nations." Sighing, Akari shut her eyes. "Know that I always wanted to show you this, I just hoped you'd be a little older before it'd happen." As Naruto watched in confusion, Akari whispered the name of his mother. "Uzumaki Kushina."

As smoke appeared out of nowhere, Naruto's eyes were affixed to the smoke as, out of it, Kushina emerged, looking around in confusion. "Ehh?" Her eyes settled on Akari. "Akari-chan, what are you doing he-" She then noticed Naruto, her hands coming up to her mouth in surprise. Naruto admittedly was in a similar state of shock, since from photos he knew what Kushina looked like.

Within moments he was in her arms, the pair of them babbling to each other. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, Akari slipped out faster than either of them could blink, getting herself a safe distance so she didn't get covered in waterworks. She left a note telling the pair that Kushina, as long as she didn't use any Chakra, would be there for a total of one hour, forty minutes, so they had time to bond. She also added an extra coded portion, just for Kushina's eyes, telling her that she had spoken to Minato, who was happy to wait until Chunin to be revealed to Naruto, and to not mention who Naruto's father was, for Naruto's sake.

Hopefully the fiery redhead would actually listen to her request.

* * *

Akari left Konoha's walls, wandering into the forest where she couldn't break anything people would care about.

As she walked, the thought about her life so far, from her first day when she came downstairs to see a breakfast styled after one her old world had, all the way to the here and now. She remembered the good, though admittedly it was outweighed heavily by the bad. Her brother having to sacrifice his vision so she could keep on seeing. Her team being massacred like lambs to the slaughter by a psychopath.

But then, to her enemies, wouldn't she be the same? She had yet to kill a hostile genin team, but with all this anger in the air, something was going to crack. Already she'd heard rumors that Iwa were getting bolder and bolder. They'd long-since stepped up from random 'bandit attacks' all the way to direct ambushing of Konoha forces. It seemed the truce from six years ago was already being left by the wayside.

She came across a clearing large enough for her training. Akari started off by cranking up her speed to 35%, then bolting to the other end of the clearing, trying to get a feel for her speed. She then came back to the side she entered from at the same speed, repeating the motion several dozen times trying to stop hersalf in the same place each time.

After she was finished doing that, she rolled her arms, clicking her fingers and performing two hand seals. She didn't speak the name of the technique, merely using the Gokakyu no Jutsu silently. It was completely by accident that she realized, just as hand seals were an assistance for focusing Chakra, so to were the names of the techniques. Aside from making it easy to say exactly what certain attacks were, it also helped focus your mind as to what you wanted to occur. Since Akari was already working on shortening the number of hand seals she used for a Jutsu, learning to not speak the name was fairly easy.

She spat the fireball directly up, there wasn't a point to destroying the lush forest around her. Cycling through Jutsu, she used most of the note-worthy abilities she possessed, from Raiton to Doton. Then, after the last vestiges of her final Jutsu petered away, she sat down with a tired sigh. Her Chakra was drained halfway from her exertions, and while it'd come back quickly, it still tired her out to use so much Chakra in one go.

As she slumped on her back to cloud-watch for a few minutes, she felt a presence approaching her. Her sensing skill was still extremely poor, but it was leagues better than it used to be. They felt pretty non-threatening, with very small Chakra reserves, so she didn't do anything but keep watching the skies as they ambled closer.

She heard grass being brushed aside as they walked, eventually sighing and rolling over to see a woman in a kimono made out of flax or hemp carrying a woven basket which was half-filled with various herbs. With an idle thought she activated her Sharingan and frowned. She wasn't a Henge, it truly was just a random woman. Dragging herself up from her prone position, she stood and thrust her hands into her pocket, wandering closer to the woman.

Out of curiosity, she peered into her basket, dredging up what she knew of herbal medicine from her Iryo-nin proficiency. There was some Oriental Motherwort, a sprig or two of Scutellaria, plus some plants she didn't recognize as well. Presumably, she was doing general foraging for whatever village she'd come from, since Oriental Motherwort was necessary for when a mother gave birth away from healthcare in case of Postpartum Hemmoraging, while Scutellaria was good to help quell diarrhea, hepatitis and inflammation.

Deciding that she didn't want to spook the woman too much, Akari made sure to step on plenty of twigs as she came closer, until finally the woman heard one snap and turned around. "Yo." She greeted casually, keeping her hands lazily in her pockets, her posture relaxed. "You searching for anything in particular?" The woman ran her eyes over Akari briefly, her lips pressing to a line.

"Yes, perhaps you'd know whether I could locate any Chrysanthemums in the area? Our village has been experiencing a lot of insect swarms recently. We could also do with some Clematis." Akar raised an eyebrow at that, since Clematis was could be pretty toxic, she herself even used a little bit of it in her poison mix. But then again, it was very useful for treating skin infections and migraines, you just had to be super careful about how much you used.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know this section of the forest too well, I think I saw a few bushes of Chrysanthemums on the way here, though I haven't seem Clematis growing anywhere around here before." The woman seemed a little surprised by her knowledge of plants. But hey, just because she was a Kunoichi didn't mean she didn't know her way around herbs, especially useful ones. "If you'd like I could have a quick run around, see if I can't spot any? I assure ya, I'm far faster than you are. No offense meant of course." She punctuated this by releasing her hold on her speed up to 20%, then zipping over to a tree, casually leaning on it. "I'm just fast when I want to be."

The woman's wide eyes came back to normal after only a moment. She'd probably run into a Shinobi or Kunoichi before considering how close she was to Konoha, which was how she accepted Akari's speed so easily. The woman gave her a list of herbs she wanted, some of which Akari knew she could track down, so she gave her a sloppy salute and zipped off to go hunt them down.

Why Akari was doing this was simple, she had to fill her time somehow. Since summoning Kushina, it had only been twenty minutes. She wanted to wait until Kushina was gone before going back home, since she honestly wasn't sure if she could actually face her.

Kurama muttered in her ear that he understood why Kushina treated him the way she did, but it didn't stop Akari from wanting to first punch the woman in the face as hard as she could, then hug her for all she was worth. Because, even if she did treat Kurama like...even if she treated him as she did, she was still Kushina, that always-smiling ex-Kunoichi who always dragged her to Ichiraku, always spent the extra time to keep in tune with everybody she knew.

...She was still the woman who lost everything.

* * *

"Why are you helping me?"

Akari shrugged. "Well, I've got nothing better to do with my time, I can't go home just yet, I still have to wait another...ten minutes or so, so maybe five minutes before I have to leave ya." The woman was about to question how on earth Akari would only need five minutes to get home, then remembered Akari's speed and shut her mouth again, shaking her head in exasperation.

Akari was the one carrying the basket now, which was laden-down with herbs of varying shapes, sizes and colours. She had also plucked a few choice pieces for her own safe-keeping, the dangerous and deadly herbs she found when rummaging, all to go into her poison-making ventures.

So far, she'd become immune to enough poisons that she could probably kill everyone in a village with ease...not that she ever would, but it would have made clearing Hideyoshi Depot a cakewalk, even if that'd mean she never ran into Deidara. But a lot of the herbs she used were hard to come by in Konoha, so she foraged for them whenever she got a chance, much to the ire of her team.

Wandering into Aina's village with her was definitely a nice change of pace from her hectic life. She didn't have to worry about a Genin team right now, or about training, or Naruto, or anything to do with her life. For just five minutes, she wasn't Uchiha Akari, Jinchuriki of Kurama, Fuinjutsu Master, none of that stuff, she was just Akari, a random helpful young Kunoichi.

She plopped the heavy basket down beside Aina's house, giving the woman a wave as she wandered back out of the village, getting an equally casual goodbye from the woman as she muttered about how she was going to get those herbs inside.

Hey, she was helpful, she wasn't Santa Claus. She walked away from the village with her hands stuffed into her pockets, straight up the side of a Hashirama tree, then from there across the forest at half her top speed, her Sharingan helping her keep her positioning on branches as she leapt from tree to tree, her hands never leaving her pockets aside from to occasionally bring various candies for her to nibble on.

Her most recent experiments were into making Mint Imperials, though it wasn't going so well. She didn't know how to make them, but was hoping her cooking proficiency would help her wiggle her way through making them, but it didn't. Every batch she tried to make always just came out...wrong. She still ate them, but they weren't the same.

She did have a large stash of regular hard mints though, since making those were comparatively-easy, Mint Imperials just seemed to evade her. Sighing, she crunched through the mint, savouring the taste for a few moments before chewing it all to pieces, then popping a new one in. She made it back to Konoha with maybe a minute or two left on Kushina's time limit, slipping straight through the gate with the aid of the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu. She hadn't signed out, so trying to enter would raise questions she couldn't be bothered to answer.

She got to her home and waited outside for a few moments, hearing Naruto and Kushina's heartfelt goodbyes to each other, sobs coming from the both of them. She tuned out anything they said, letting them have those last moments in privacy. When she felt Kushina disappear, she gave Naruto a minute before she knocked on the door. It was almost immediately flung open as the little ball of orange and energy flung himself at her.

She was ready for him to be angry that she'd kept his mother from him for so long, to yell or try to hurt her. What she didn't expect was for him to hug her tightly, bawling into her midriff. She drew him down so they were sat down, his face still buried in her clothes. "It's alright cub, let it out." She rubbed the back of his head, pressing her nose to his hair as her other arm held him in a close hug.

"C-can I-I see h-her again...?" He mumbled through hiccups and tears. Smiling, she raised his face to look at her, brushing his hair from his brow then planting a soft kiss on his forehead.

"Whenever you want." His face lit up."After the time-limit...sorry cub. I can only bring Kushina out every...three days." His face at first looked like the rapture had come, then flipped so it was like a hundred birthdays. Smiling, she brushed away the tear-tracks staining his cheeks, though a frown slipped slowly onto her lips. "Cub...did Kushina tell you anything about your father?"

Naruto's face fell a little as he mumbled. "No. She told me you asked her not to." His face wasn't accusing, that was good at least.

"Oh kit, you know I'd tell you everything if I could. But...your father had enemies. If they knew about you, they'd come after you just as a way to get revenge. I'll tell you this much though...he's...your father isn't in the same place your mother is." She pre-empted his next question. "He isn't alive though, I'm sorry. I promise that when you become Chunin, I'll let you meet the man himself. I can assure you...you'll be pleasantly surprised to meet him. I know he wants to meet you as well, but even he told me that waiting until you hit Chunin is a good idea, you have to be able to protect yourself if word of who he is gets out to his enemies."

Ruffling up Naruto's hair, Akari led him inside, already planning what food to make.

* * *

"Sensei, this is you, right?"

Looking over at Tachiko, Akari snorted. "F-Hell no that's not me, not any more." Tachiko made a face, looking at the Bingo book she was holding with disdain. "That book's gotta be like three years out of date at least. I know for a fact Iwa raised their bounty recently from 30 to 40 million Ryo, 100 million alive. Besides, look at me!" She did a twirl. "Do I really look the same?"

She'd definitely changed her ensemble a little from her old look, sporting forearm guards with plated metal, while her biceps were bare until halfway up, where her black sleeves reached, leading into a black and crimson-coloured Jonin-vest, one of her few concessions to Hiruzen's requests. She never liked how the Tokubetsu Vest she received weighed her down and ruined her entire look, but since he'd allowed her to get the Jonin Vest custom-made with the colouring she wanted, she didn't mind. Besides, her strength meant she could now wear a vest permanently with no negative effect, and it did afford her some decent protection.

Akari still wore her short combat skirt with shorts beneath, a soft crimson scarf wrapped around her neck that had her Konoha forehead protector sewn onto it. Her legs no longer had her Senbon strip, since she didn't need it, nor a Kunai holster. Instead, she had a pair of scroll holsters, each holding her own personal design of emergency explosive tags, each having enough force to level half of Konoha if they were set off. Rising to just above her knees were her usual leggings, ending in some tough, steel-toe capped boots, far superior to the toe-injury-inducing sandals other Shinobi wore for some inane reason.

Finally, on the small of her back, was her main pouch, which held her 'storage scrolls', which was how she explained how she could pull practically everything from almost nothing. Her forearm guards had seals on them as well, which dispensed her Kunai, Senbon, as well as all her knives, though they were also fitted with capture seals, so if she dropped her knives, they would be re-sealed. That didn't work if she threw one, it detected that and let the blade fly, but it meant she could on the fly go from unarmed, armed, then back to unarmed in the blink of an eye, making her a monster to fight against. "I guess not."

Grinning, Akari snagged Tachiko's Bingo Book, holding it up. "So, where'd you get ahold of one of these? I know they only give these out to Chunin, and while you kits are good, I don't quite think you'd be able to handle Kiri's Chunin exams..." She ignored Aiko's boisterous complaint about how they'd totally smash Kiri's challenges to pieces, she knew better than he, those brats in Kiri would chew her Genin to pieces. "...so the only ways I see you getting one is by stealing it, borrowing it, or finding it because you're lucky." She kept going, but Tachiko winced ever so faintly when she mentioned stealing it, so she knew the girl had pinched it from somewhere. Tossing the book in the air, she incinerated it with a weak Gokakyu no Jutsu.

As Tachiko stared at the ashes of what she'd worked hard to get, Akari dug her own Bingo Book out of her inventory, throwing it towards the girl with a grin. Her's was actually in-date, so if she was trawling for information on other Konoha-nin as well as enemies they might run into, she'd get way more mileage out of that book than a three-year-outdated one. "T-thank you Sensei!"

She waved the girl off. "Next time just ask me!" Akari went back to scrolling through her menus aimlessly, eventually noticing her notifications had an alert she had somehow not spotted. Opening the menu, she read what was written and summarized her reactions in four words. "Oh, fuck you Game.

**Quest completed!**

**Botany Bitc-**

* * *

**I know, I know, these are getting shorter.**

**The problem is that I don't have much to work with here. In a few months time the Chunin exams are going to be happening in Konoha, so Akari's going to be watching her Genin do that, but then after that...pretty much nothing is going to happen, not until Naruto hits Genin.**

**...I hate to say it, but I think this story might come to a close before Chapter 65...just give it some thought, what events can even happen any more? With Danzo and Orochimaru gone, a lot of future events can't happen. The only thing I could have happen is...hmm, actually, I have a good idea!**

**So, Chunin Exams probably next chapter or two, plus a mystery event.**

**(I don't mean this is ending in a few chapters! Sorry for the misunderstanding, I meant in 20 or so chapters, that seems like how far this story will go, in my eyes at least. I just meant the mystery event and Chunin Exams were going to happen.)**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 112**

**Age: 17**

**Experience: ****73,921/****112,000**

**To Next Level: 40,268**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 25,000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 4900/m - 81.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 70**

**Endurance - 70**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 70**


	42. Chapter 42

**Do you know what this chapter is?**

**This chapter is the answer to THE Answer. The answer to the Ultimate Question, of Life, the Universe, and everything!...**

**Forty-two.**

**...I'll get on with the chapter now.**

**Also, a character with a certain talking style enters in this chapter...I can't write how they talk properly, so...sorry about how much I butcher their lines, and I'm really hopeful you all enjoy this chapter, I'm very happy with it!**

_**Chapter 42**_

* * *

"You three really think you're ready?"

Her Genin looked between themselves and all gave confident nods. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn ya." Akari handed her three Genin each a piece of paper. "All the instructions are on the back, if you get anything wrong don't blame me." With that, Akari left her three Genin at the training ground, vanishing into the trees so she could sit down, sighing.

Akari honestly wasn't sure if her team was ready. On one hand, they'd grown into being Shinobi well. Even if they were all still hesitant about taking a life, they understood that sometimes, that was what had to be done. They could all hold their own against bandits just fine, and though they had yet to fight a hostile nin without her help, she felt that her team could handle it.

But, on the other hand, she still felt as though the Chunin exams were going to be too much for them. Those exams could get pretty extreme from what horror stories Anko had spun for her. She knew ninety percent of it was bull designed to make her worried, but that ten percent still worried her a little. But her team was adamant, and in the end, she let them have their decision.

Besides, what was the worst that could happen? This exam was happening in Konoha, so they stood the best chance of survival against competing in Iwa or Kiri. In those villages, there was an extremely high chance of sabotage, especially Iwa. Despite the tensions between Konoha and Iwa though, Hiruzen still allowed the exams to go ahead, several Iwa teams being present along with Kumo, Kiri and Suna teams.

Of course, they were outnumbered by Konoha's genin teams, but it was still surprising how many Genin were present for this exam. Typically during times of tension, each village would send only a single team, just as a show of honouring the exams, whereas as home Genin would be 'field-promoted' to Chunin after taking selective exams. From what she could see though, it was almost business as normal for the other villages. Then there were the minor village teams. Some from Takigakure, from Kusagakure, even a team from Shimogakure.

With another sigh, she hopped off her branch, heading off in the direction of her home.

* * *

"Holy shit, Barava, good to see y-...what the fuck happened to your face?"

Spinning around as she spoke, the Kusa-nin took one look at Akari and bellowed out laughter. "Akari-chan, good to see you too!" His three Genin were arrayed behind him. From their expressions, it didn't seem like they remembered her. Then again, she only saw and scared them for maybe a minute before Barava had shown up, so they could be forgiven. "Oh, this little thing?" He gestured at his facial scarring. "A feisty missing-nin Kunoichi from Kaze no Kuni gave me this."

Humming, Akari watched his own eyes drift down to her orange arm. "Oh, and this? I...well, actually...-" Akari leaned in conspiratorially. "-it's the same wound from when I was a Genin, it just got made a bit...bigger, so I fixed it." She flexed her arm for emphasis. "But I can't...'hand' it out unfortunately." She ignored Barava's groan at her pun. "I mean, the amount of fine-tuning it took to make this damn thing work...I'd never see the light of day if I started replacing arms."

The man held his hands up in defence. "I wasn't going to ask." Akari let her gaze wander over Barava's Genin, coming to a stop on the redhead of the group. She stepped forwards into the girls personal space a little, a hand holding her chin as she observed her features. "Ahh, that's Karin, I believe you two met briefly?" Nodding, she stayed focused on the girls face as it steadily reddened from their proximity.

"She's an Uzumaki, isn't she?" The girl's eyes widened, as Barava took a slightly defensive posture. "Oh relax, I don't want her for much, I just want her to meet Naruto." Barava looked at her questioningly. "Wait, did I never tell you? Naruto's an Uzumaki as well. You know I adopted him! How did this never come up in conversation?"

Akari would have continued, but found her shoulders gripped by Karin, who was staring at her with rather scary intensity. "Where?!" Tipping her head to look at the tall Jonin of the group, she got a shrug, as if to say 'You work this out.' It was a testament to how much Barava trusted her to not do something stupid with his Genin that he didn't care what antics she got up to with them.

"Well, now that I think about it, where are you guys staying? Because if you want, you can bunk at my place, that way you can meet your...cousin? Clan-mate? I have no idea honestly, your fellow Uzumaki. I'm sure Naruto would be happy to meet another living Uzumaki as well." The man unrolled a scroll from somewhere and read it, eventually holding it out to Akari to read. "Oh okay, yeah, you'd probably prefer staying with me for the exams. Oh oh! By the way Barava, I have a team as well." The man blinked at her, then shook his head. "What?"

"Nothing, I just feel sorry for them."

* * *

"Naruto, you home yet?"

Yelling up the stairs as she entered her house, she ushered Barava and his team inside, shutting the door behind them and jumping up the stairs. After a quick check to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep doing anything, she wandered back down. "He's probably still on his way back, or possibly got distracted doing something with his friends. One of the other, take your pick. Well, the grand tour I guess."

She showed the four of them where the kitchen was, bathroom, the two bedrooms they were going to be using, all the things she needed to. "uhh, Akari-san, what are all of...those?" One of Barava's Genin who wasn't an Uzumaki piped up, pointing at the wooden planks all screwed into the walls close to the ceiling, with loads of holes going throughout the house.

"Oh, those?" Akari grinned, putting her arm close to one. "Kurama, can you come here a sec?" A few moments later the fox popped through one of the holes, climbing his way down her arm and slumping on her shoulders. "That's why those are there. This is Kurama, and who he really is is a tiny bit above your pay-grade kids, though I'm fairly sure Barava here knows who this is."

The man was certainly surprised to see Kurama, though he tactfully kept his mouth shut about what Kurama actually was. "Yeah, I'd agree that...Kurama there is certainly above the pay-grade of a Genin, and also Chunin and Tokubetsu Jonin." Smirking, she raised an arm in question, lowering it when Kurama mentally told her he'd rather stick around and watch the new inhabitants of her place.

It was at that moment that the downstairs door opened. Nipping past the four of them, Akari leaned around the corner to look down the stairs and watch Naruto tucking his shoes away. "Hey Naruto!~" He looked up in surprise at her, probably wasn't expecting her to be home before he was. "I've got another surprise for ya." He finished taking his shoes up then sprinted up the stairs to give her a quick hug, surreptitiously peering around her at the other people stood in the hallway.

Confused, he looked up at her. "But Kaa-san, I thought you said slavery was illegal." She had to slap a hand over her mouth to stop herself snorting, ruffling his hair as he grinned.

"No cub, they aren't slaves. Now, I think...did I mention Barava to you before?" he nodded, waving ah and at the large Kusa-nin, who gave a nod back. "Well, this is his Genin team. Now, who there looks like someone similar to a certain person I showed you?" His gaze wandered over the three Genin, locking onto Karin. Or rather, onto her hair.

He broke his hug with Akari, taking curious steps towards the Genin. he leaned to the left and right of Karin, then turned back around to Akari with a grin. "She looks like you!" Akari buried her face in one hand with a groan, while Barava laughed thunderously. She knew they tried to hide it, but it was clear even Barava's three Genins found it hilarious.

"No, cub, she...ugh, whatever. Get acquainted with her, her team too if you don't mind Barava, I'm gonna go hunt down my own team, so I'll see ya tonight. There's a bunch of cooked stuff in the fridge, if you want to make something you can, and by every power I possess if you make a mess of my kitchen, I will hit you with so many seals you'll be dreaming about my calligraphy." Her point made, Akari left the house with a nonchalant whistle, Kurama already going to sleep on her shoulders.

She had some Genin to track down.

* * *

After spending a few hours needling her Genin about their decision, Akari was on her way home when Kurama told her someone was following her.

Using a brief break in line-of-sight, she made a Shadow Clone, then sent it running the same way she was going, whilst she hid in the blind-spot, watching as..."Huh." She mumbled. It was a Suna Genin following her, presumably trying to do recon on their opponents. Chuckling as she realized the Genin might have confused her for one of her students thanks to her stature, she zipped over just as the Genin made the jump across another building, snagging them by their collar and pulling them away from the gap. "So, why're you following me little cub?"

To his credit, the Genin only looked worried for a few moments, relaxing in her grasp a little as he realized who she was. He'd probably been told by his sensei that if caught to just fess up, since he freely admitted that he and his team were trying to find any intel they could on the most worrisome teams, something which the Chunin Exams allowed since it fit the entire idea of being a Shinobi, as well as showed a good amount of foresight to try to gather intelligence on their opponents.

"Well, I'm sure that by looking at me you know how which team I'm a part of, huh?" He gave a hurried nod, stumbling slightly as she released him. "They might still be at their training ground, so just go there." The Genin looked at her in utter confusion. "What? If they don't realize you guys are spying on them then they've been slacking off. Now go on, get!" She waved her hands in a shooing motion, sending the Genin fleeing across the rooftops with a smirk on her lips.

It wasn't exactly like her team wouldn't know they were being watched after all.

* * *

"I didn't teach them that..."

Akari sat with her face glued to the window as they watched her Genin systematically tear apart a Kiri Genin team using a combination attack. Aiko was the one who caught their focus and aggravated them into the trap while Tachiko and Hikaru prepared their long string of hand seals, finally ending at the same time and casting a Katon and Futon Jutsu at the same time, using it to absolutely blast their opponents away.

It was also amusing watching them all spend five minutes digging through ashes trying to find the scroll before Aiko finally gave up and used a Futon Jutsu to blast away the ash, revealing the scroll, unmarred by the flames. She looked around at the disbelieving looks of the other Jonin-senseis, folding her arms. "I didn't! Hikaru is too sharp for his own good."

Her team had a pretty hard time with the first trial, since it was a subterfuge test, something Akari had very little experience in. They did manage to pass though, moving on to the second trial, where they had to survive travelling into the Forest of Death, take down an enemy team somewhere along the way to retrieve the opposing scroll, then reach the centre of the forest where the tower stood, upon which they would have to realize they were supposed to open their scroll, which would reverse-summon her to their location, a nifty little bit of Fuinjutsu which took quite a bit of setting up, far more than you'd think.

The fact that they were willing to take the lives of those Kiri Genin was a pretty good sign because it meant they wouldn't hesitate if they had to kill other Genin. Besides, those Kiri Genin would have done the same, and perhaps worse, if given the chance. It was a little worrying how none of them even hesitated slightly, but considering their line of work, that was pretty standard for any who lasted longer than a year, they found coping mechanisms and hung from them.

Dumping another stick of Dango down for Kurama to chew on, Akari shifted her crossed legs so they wouldn't stiffen up, missing a blast of wind knocking her Genin down. Unfortunately, while they could see the Genin, they couldn't hear any conversations, so they were resigned to watching the two hostile teams banter back and forth before...the other team tossed their scroll at Akari's team and fled.

She hadn't taught any of them how to use any kind of Killing Intent, nor a Genjutsu, so how they pulled that off, Akari had no idea. It was an Iwa team that fled as well, one of the least likely villages for teams to abandon the chance to kill Konoha-nin in a totally above-the-board way. But hey, if they wanted to throw away their win like that, it was just fine by her team, as they snatched the scroll, putting it into a storage seal that Hikaru was carrying, then continuing on.

They needed that scroll after all, as the Kiri team had the same type they had. She kept watching as they traversed the forest, using Hikaru's surprisingly sharp senses to their fullest to evade other teams and quickly make their way to the central tower, arriving just as the sun went down. "Well, that's my team done." Only one other Konoha team had passed so far, a pretty poor turnout all things considered, especially the fact that they had the home-turf advantage.

She felt the tug of a reverse-summons, letting it pull her to the ground floor of the tower where her Genin were. "Well done kits!" She chirped, then immediately got up and grabbed Tachiko and Hikaru around their necks, awkwardly giving each of them a noogie. "But you two should tell me these things before you embarrass me in front of all the other Jonin-senseis for teaching you things you shouldn't know!"

She released their necks after a final drag, smirking at Aiko as he hesitantly backed away. "You didn't participate, but you were in on it, so..." After she snagged the fleeing boy and dragged her knuckles on his head, she quickly snatched the other two Genin, giving them all a group hug. "But really, well done you three!" She could tell her Genin had just given up at this point as each of them returned her hug. "Now, I'm not supposed to give anything out to you guys until after the exams, but you deserve it, so shh."

She pulled out three little scrolls, handing one to each Genin. "If anyone asks, you just brought those in, yeah?" As they saw what was scribbled onto each scroll, they all nodded their heads, Aiko going further to try and catch her in a second hug. "Alright alright, now, skedaddle, you guys have...three days before the cut-off point for this stage of the exam, so rest up, get ready for your next fight, and don't slack off on your training." Her Genin all said their goodbyes and disappeared further into the tower animatedly talking to one another about the entire day. If they'd looked back, they would have seen the frown she was pulling as she looked back into the forest.

"Kurama...something's wrong." She mumbled softly. The fox spoke his agreement in her mind, hopping off of her shoulders and loping out of the tower with Akari following him. She'd learned a while ago to trust when her mind told her something was wrong, and right now she felt something was going horribly wrong somewhere...more than ever.

Deciding to not take any chances, she quickly called Kurama back and Hiraishin'd to her apartment to a very surprised Naruto who was sat on the sofa nibbling on food. he normally would have leapt up and greeted her, but from the fact her face was probably not in the most pleasant look, and the fact that Kurama was tense on her shoulders, he got up cautiously. "Kaa-san?"

"Cub, something's wrong. I want you to go to your room and activate those seals we made together to keep you safe, yeah? I'll be by again soon, I promise. Don't let anyone but me in, no matter what." Brushing his cheek with a thumb, she gave him a brief hug before he disappeared off to his room. A moment later she felt it become blocked off from her senses. "Okay, let's figure out what the fuck is going on, eh Kurama?"

As he turned to look at her, presumably to give her some kind of quip, they were both slammed with a wave of caustic Chakra, one familiar to the pair as Bijuu Chakra. Her seal was absolutely fine, so the only possible reason for Bijuu Chakra to be sensed within Konoha, especially in the quantity it was being unleashed...was a hostile Jinchuriki.

Shoving open the door, she quickly flipped around and sprinted up the side of her home, coming to a stop on the roof. On her shoulders, she felt Kurama's familiar body dissipate as he returned himself to her seal. If he was forcibly dispelled, his consciousness would take a little while to return, which meant it was safest if he just remained in the seal to help her. "Well, want to meet their challenge head-on?"

He didn't say anything, but she got the impression of a feral grin as he flooded her Chakra system with Chakra. Her Game popped a notification up in the corner of her vision, but she ignored it in favour of channelling Kurama's chakra, using it to blot out the hostile Chakra in the air. The Chakra the enemy Jinchuriki was emitting was practically dripping with Killing Intent. Against anyone who was not a Jinchuriki, they'd never be able to match it as she could, but since she could do so, she managed to stifle the oppressive blanket covering the village, immediately hearing battles begin raging as she released the majority of Konoha's nin from the paralyzing fear that the hostile, Bijuu-fueled Killing Intent would bring forward.

Kurama quickly helped her track down exactly where that Chakra came from, Akari vanishing in a blur as she charged across Konoha. As she traversed the village at top speed with her Sharingan whirling to give her total control over her speed, she saw countless scenes of brutality playing out between the attackers and defenders. From what she saw, she knew her enemies and allies. It was Kumo, Kiri and Iwa who were invading. Alongside the Konoha-nin fighting, there were also Suna-nin battling, though against the three villages who managed to take down Uzushiogakure together, it was a stalemate, even with Suna's assistance.

Gritting her teeth, she blasted over the final rooftop, her feet extending as she planted both boots straight into the side of the enemy Jinchuriki's head. She winced as she kicked off his head, rolling into a flip to land on her feet as he stumbled but quickly righted himself. She didn't have time for bullshit, immediately inspecting him and exhaling. Han, a level 87, Jinchuriki to the five-tailed beast, Kokuo.

The man took one look at her, his eyes widening fractionally before he slammed one hand into the gi he was wearing over his armour, drawing a miniature crossbow from within then pointing it up and firing it, all in one smooth move which, at normal speeds, would have been far too fast to stop. Her eyes tracked the projectile for a few seconds, though to Han it would have been far less than even a single second, before she kicked off the ground and snatched it out of mid-air.

She gave it a quick look before crushing it. It looked to be a flare of some kind, perhaps meant to tell anyone else where she was so they could try to deal with her. She snorted. Yeah, like they could handle her as she was now.

As she fell from her jump, she spun around and tossed several Senbon, though Han merely took them on his armour. One linked off his facemask, revealing that it was also just as hard, making her wonder how he managed to breath like that. She heard the large device on his back whine for a moment before he clenched a fist and settled into a stance. "Joki Bakushin!"

His voice called the name of his technique, which was dumb since it gave the game away. She casually sidestepped his 'Steam Dash', pivoting on her chakra-anchored foot to smash a high kick into his face as he charged, grunting at the impact dealt to her leg. 400 damage for a single kick, though it probably hurt Han a heck of a lot more, sending him hurtling backwards into the ground, cratering it with just as much force.

Since she was anchored in place by her foot, as well as her body being far harder to break now that it ever had been before, it was like running into a wall. As he came to a stop, Akari drew a knife, considering what the fuck she was supposed to do about this. She had Fuinjutsu supplies in her inventory, but she didn't know how to go about capturing a Bijuu or their Jinchuriki. "Kurama, a little help?"

He picked up on what she wanted, telling her, even if she could tell he wasn't happy about having to help her fight against what was practically his sister, how the other Bijuu could be captured. But, before Akari could put any thoughts of hastily writing a seal to hold Kokuo temporarily, she felt another wave of Bijuu Chakra a split-second before a fist tried to clock the back of her head.

She felt the familiar zap of lightning brush her neck even as she avoided the blow by sheer instinct, her eyes sweeping the form of the second Jinchuriki to enter the mix. Killer B, she knew him, since he was the one who held the eight-tails. "Yo big nine, you be looking mighty fine." Akari blinked. Did he really just. Narrowing her eyes, she bolted towards the man, swinging her foot at his midriff in a probing attack.

In response, he swept a blade in the path of her foot, forcing her to draw it back to avoid being sliced, while at the same time he stepped forwards with another blade being drawn, swiping downwards to attempt to cut her from collar to hip. She deflected that strike with her forearm guard, making space by hopping backwards several times. This time, he kept his mouth shut, evidently her speed had made him take the fight far more seriously than before.

She could feel the heat rising as the Jinchuriki behind Killer B began doing something. What exactly she didn't know, but she decided that having fun and games with two hostile Jinchuriki just wasn't on the cards today. if she was being forced to reveal her abilities, one of the few she didn't mind becoming public knowledge was a good place to start.

As she shut her eyes, she could hear Killer B's feet slam the ground as he blasted towards her, presumably with a blade outstretched to take advantage of her moment. That moment had long-since passed before he could get anywhere though, her eyes re-opening as she muttered a single word, just for emphasis. "Susanoo."

She'd gone straight for the highest level Susanoo. Sure, it drained her a bit, but against two hostile Jinchuriki, it was worth it, as the skeleton, then the muscles, skin and finally armour appeared around her. Recently, as she worked on her abilities, she'd noticed that her 100 Chakra per second cost for the Susanoo had been lowering for some reason, it was now only 93 per second. She immediately formed a Naginata and swept it downwards at Han and B, forcing the pair to move, which was exactly what she wanted, suddenly twisting the Naginata and slicing across the ground, the blade travelling faster than the blink of an eye.

Only, it didn't keep going when it hit Killer B. Why became clear as she looked down at him and saw his body wreathed with the Chakra of a Bijuu. She didn't expect him to have the physical strength to stop even her Susanoo strike, but then again, he was a Jinchuriki. His skin was crackling with Lightning, which was just too tempting to pass up. Deciding to try something she never had before, Akari drew her Susanoo back to its full height, taking just a little of Kurama's Chakra through herself.

Then, just as she had before, she forced it into the nature of Lightning, only this time, instead of forming a supermassive ball from it, she dispersed it evenly throughout her Susanoo, crackling red lines of lightning leaping out of her Susanoo as she glared down at Killer B. To his credit, he met her challenge head-on, his own Bijuu cloaking him in Chakra as he drew all...all seven of his swords and held them in possibly the strangest stance she'd ever seen.

Not one to underestimate her opponents too much though, Akari slammed a foot down, forcing the right fist of her Susanoo straight towards Killer B. A hiss of steam to the side saw her torso blasted by a spray of superheated steam, though the Susanoo was strong enough to ignore the attack, Han's attempt at a surprise ending up useless. her blow landed as Killer B swept his swords around himself, all seven clashing at once against her own attack.

She watched in surprise as her Susanoo's hand was forced upwards and away, which also made the main body of the Susanoo stumble from the sudden imbalance, though at the same time Killer B was sent skidding back a few feet, his feet carving furrows in the ground as he went. She was forced to dispel the Susanoo to prevent it from levelling several dozen buildings with its fall backwards, landing on the ground and shoving her hands into her pockets. "That's pretty impressive y'know."

Killer B sheathed all by two of his swords, a smile on his face even as his covered eyes looked towards her. She didn't know if he was looking into her eyes or not, since she couldn't use a Genjutsu against him anyway, not as a Jinchuriki. "'Course it was, fool ya fool!" She ignored his insult as she shut her eyes a second time.

"But...do you know what's probably just a tiny bit more impressive?" She opened her eyes to look at his confused face. "This." She spoke three names under her voice, three puffs of smoke emerging even as she staggered, seventy-five percent of her Chakra reserves gone in the blink of an eye. As she recovered, she relished the surprise on Killer B and Han's half-covered faces. "Grant free will." There before them stood Konoha's three other Hokages, Namikaze Minato, Senju Tobirama, Senju Hashirama...

...and they did not look happy.

* * *

**Ooh snap!**

**Yes, that's right, Konoha just got attacked by Iwa, Kiri and Kumo. Akari is scary to them, sure, but between the three of them, considering the fact Konoha is supposed to still be quite weak from Kurama's attack, they decide they still have a good window to knock Konoha out.**

**I mean, these three villages took down Uzushiogakure. That's impressive. Akari just...breaks the rules more than they were expecting.**

**And that reveal. I think the time is right for Akari to begin using Megami no Mon more often. She won't rely on it for every fight, but right now, especially with how motivated the three Kage's will be to protect Konoha, she decided it was time to use it for her first public battle.**

**How do you guys think though? Do you like it? Think it's hype? Or think she's dumb for revealing it like that?**

**Reviews are so amazing, and thank you so much to everyone who leaves one!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 112**

**Age: 17**

**Experience: ****73,921/****112,000**

**To Next Level: 40,268**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 25,000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 4900/m - 81.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 70**

**Endurance - 70**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 70**


	43. Chapter 43

**I really should stop making B talk...I can't write his style at ALL.**

**So yeah, the Konoha attack. I would be very willing to bet money that NOBODY expected that to happen last chapter...mostly because Akari wouldn't know it was going to happen, and I don't talk out of person very often, so we don't hear their dastardly plans before they happen, but whatever.**

_**Chapter 43**_

* * *

It was as if the entirety of Konoha was holding its breath.

And why wouldn't it? Three of the most powerful men to have ever walked her streets had just re-emerged. They each looked around, took in their situation in their own ways, then let their gazes settle on the foreign and evidently-hostile Shinobi. Though, breakign the atmosphere, Minato decided to pipe up with a question. "B, is that you?"

The man's eyebrows rose, presumably his eyes widened behind his goggles. "Yo Yondaime, I heard you gone bye man?" Minato shook his head, though before he could say anything, he was interrupted by Tobirama suddenly disappearing, re-appearing a few steps away from Han, planting a Kunai harshly into his torso, then retreating when he realized Han's armour protected him.

It soon became clear that Han was trying to gather enough steam to blast them all away in one attack, something Tobirama was not going to accept. Wielding his mastery over water, he spewed out more water than could fill a swimming pool, contorting it into the shape of a dragon with a few brief hand-seals, then sending it rocketing towards the Jinchuriki. "Nii-san!"

Akari face-palmed at the same time Tobirama made an aggrieved noise, she had been right about his brother it seemed. "Hey Shodai-sama!" She quickly snatched Hashirama's attention, directing him towards Killer B. "Maybe focus on the guys currently trying their hardest to level your village, you can talk after fighting!" She didn't like having to yell at him, but it seemed to snap him out of his rather ridiculous personality, focusing on Killer B with a good dose of Killing Intent.

Evidently he didn't like people threatening his village. **"You should keep a distance from him. Unless you've forgotten, he has the Mokuton."** Akari whined a little in her throat but reluctantly backed away from Hashirama a few steps, though her actions confused him a little.

Deciding to clear things up, she channelled a little Chakra, revealing the seal on her body. "Mito-san passed away about a decade ago...my condolences. After another Jinchuriki held him for a time, the torch was passed onto me to hold Kurama." She kept it short and sweet, cleaning up enough that he merely gave her a nod and a smile before turning back towards B.

In the blink of an eye the man flashed through seven hand-seals. She could see each one, but as she got an error message, she knew he was using his Kekkei Genkai, something she couldn't copy. On his right hand, she saw Kanji appear, though not for long as he then charged at Killer B, engaging him in Taijutsu as he attempted to strike the man with his palm, presumably a way to negate B's advantages. "You gonna help them then Minato?"

She rolled her neck just in time to see him grin before he vanished, though he wasn't helping the two Kage's. Truth be told, Tobirama was currently teaching Han why he was so feared despite his efforts to remain under the radar, while Hashirama held Killer B in a Taijutsu and Bukijutsu brawl fast enough to make Akari excited. Frowning, she asked Kurama to figure out where Minato was, getting the response that he was currently...all over the village apparently.

"Oh for fuck sake, I know what he's doing!" Kurama didn't say anything, merely waiting for her to elaborate. "Think about it, this is his village. And what's his most famous technique, something that requires him to have a certain seal inscribed somewhere? The Hiraishin. He has his own personalized Hiraishin seals all over Konoha, so match that with the Shadow Clone Jutsu, he can be literally everywhere at once. Well, means that this secret is well and truly out of the bag, huh?"

As she finished her sentence, Hashirama's palm found an opening, slamming against Killer B's ribs, possibly breaking a few. As he retracted his hand, the Kanji had been transferred to Killer B's side, immediately making him fall to one knee as Gyuki's chakra receded back to his seal. "Oh, okay. I mean, I had this plan for extracting Gyuki and sealing him so he couldn't help, but suppressing him works as well I guess."

Hashirama watched Akari as she pulled a paralysis tag from her pouch and darted over to the fallen Jinchuriki. Without Gyuki backing him up, he wasn't able to stop her from planting the seal on his neck. After a brief exchange where he tried to fight even without Gyuki enhancing him, the seal was placed. Unfortunately for him, she had a ridiculous amount of Agility, so his fastest wasn't really worth mentioning as she casually slipped past his swing to paralyze him.

At the same time, Tobirama rather violently ended his confrontation with Han by slamming a fist straight through Han's chest, his punching a hole through his armour, eviscerating his internal organs with the blow. "Now that, on the other hand, I think I'm going to have to whip up a containment seal for." Flopping down cross-legged, Akari pulled out some Fuinjutsu supplies and, with Kurama's help, began scrawling a seal which could temporarily hold Kokuo.

She had to work fast, since Han was practically dead already. If he died with Kokuo still within the seal, she would be dispersed into Chakra for ten years before re-emerging, not the end of the world, but there was a slim chance that she would appear within Konoha or one of the surrounding villages and damage, perhaps even destroy a smaller village, entirely on accident. "Shodai-sama, could you perhaps keep your brother's foe alive long enough for me to seal the Gobi? I have to make sure that the Gobi doesn't accidentally destroy something if it 'dies' and disperses."

The man gave her a jaunty wave, hurrying over to Han. A moment later she saw him lay his hands on the man and act as rudimentary life-support, keeping him alive as she wrote, finished, then approached with a seal, placing it over the seal on his arm after ripping away the armour strapped there. He grunted in pain and tried to move, but with two Kage's there, and Akari practically sitting on him, he couldn't do much as Kokuo was pulled from the seal on his arm, through his Chakra Coils, which irreparably damaged them, then shifted to the seal Akari had written.

As the last vestiges of Kokuo's Chakra left him, Hashirama dropped his arms, letting the man die from his wounds. "Okay, can you two please go and help Minato, he's currently fighting all over the village. Tobirama, he uses two of your Jutsu, he managed to finish the Hiraishin, plus he knows how to use Shadow Clones, I'm just warning you now so you aren't as surprised." The man nodded to show his thanks for the warning, then the two Kage were off to defend their village.

Meanwhile, Akari turned her attention towards the paralyzed Killer B, an idea spinning in her head. They'd attacked Konoha, so if she were to remove Gyuki from Killer B, nobody would be able to complain. She sat back down facing him and began scrawling a second, stronger containment seal, taking only a minute to write the entire thing out. As she stood up, she saw B's face tighten, his glasses obscuring his gaze. "Guess this is it for B, no chance for a re. You schooled me with those moves, and I'm all out of grooves."

Groaning at how he spoke, she slapped him with the containment seal. "Sorry B, maybe if you hadn't attacked Konoha we could have been friends." She was remorseless as he writhed in pain for a few moments as the same process occurred to him as had to Han, his coils being torn to shreds as the full might of Gyuki's massive Chakra reverses forced their way through his body.

As the seal finished its work, the man slumped. A brief check with her Mystical Palm revealed that his heart had stopped beating, he was dead. Just to be sure, she planted a knife through his heart, no point risking it after all. He didn't react to the attack in any way, so she withdrew the knife after twisting it once, dropping it into her inventory. She didn't mind him too much, but he'd chosen to side with Kumo as they attacked her village, and he paid the ultimate price for it.

Turning on the spot, she took a breath, then released it slowly. **"Akari."** Kurama spoke her name, drawing her attention to him. **"I hate to suggest this, but...I must do what's best for my siblings. You could hold them both, keep them away from those who would seek to use them."** Her eyes widened. Kurama was seriously suggesting she become a Jinchuriki to not one, but three Bijuu?

"...Maybe." Before he could get angry about what bullshit 'Maybe' was, she clarified it for him. "Even if I wanted to do it right now, the sea you use would never hold all three of you. I designed it to hold you, specifically. If I put Gyuki or even Kokuo into the seal with you, the entire thing would tear itself apart, as well as kill me or render my Chakra Coils completely destroyed at minimum. I'll keep their seals with me the entire time, and then...after all this is over, we'll figure out what to do. But...don't worry about them Kurama, I won't let anybody take them away from me."

She could tell Kurama wasn't too happy about anything going on, so while his silence hurt her, she understood it. She pulled on the Hiraishin marker at her home, using it solely for the proximity to the centre of the village, then immediately leaving out the front door after ensuring Naruto's room was still locked up tightly. She went up onto the roof again, looking around with a frown.

The village was burning, with blazing infernos everywhere. Evidently the hostile shinobi weren't there to capture the town, they were doing what they did to Uzushio...they were trying to burn it to the ground. She knew some Suiton Jutsu, but not enough to make a difference with the amount of fires around. besides, hers were combat-oriented, none of them were very controllable.

She saw a colossal dragon made of water suddenly lunge up into the air, it's jaws snapping shut around something before it came swooping back down. She could see it shedding more and more water every so often. Only two men currently in the village could control such a monumental amount of water, either the Hokage, or Tobirama. As she made to make her way over and help, she suddenly ducked her head, avoiding the palm-strike about to slam into her head. "Oh?"

As she skidded across roof-tiles and spun to face her opponent, she momentarily stalled out. "You!" She growled out at the masked figure in front of her. He was exactly as Inoichi had described, mask, cloak and all. "I'm going to gut you for this." While she wanted to bolt forwards at top speed and slam her fist through his damnable mask, she knew that doing that to a totally unknown enemy, especially one who could sneak up on her so easily, was just asking to get her ass whooped.

"I must admit, you continue to surprise me little Uchiha. A little girl from a forgotten branch of the family growing up to take the place of Konoha's Jinchuriki from who I had planned it to go to, and then you just keep on growing. Killing Orochimaru was an unfortunate setback...but with what you've revealed today, perhaps you'd do well to replace his position." Gritting her teeth, Akari listened to him monologue, trying to decide whether barely charging forwards before he could react at top speed and stabbing him would work.

She just couldn't get a read on him, and that honestly scared her. If he could orchestrate something on this scale, because she had no doubt he was either the mastermind, or one of the ringleaders for this little backstab, then he probably had skills on par with that achievement. Her choice was made for her though as he disappeared in a swirl focused around his singular eye-hole. "After all, anybody will do anything with the right motivation..." He spoke as he vanished from view.

On guard against an attack, she waited...but no attack came. A few more seconds passed before her eyes widened, immediately slamming off all her limitations on speed and strength as she bolted down the roof, through the front door, then straight through the house, slamming into the door to Naruto's room. "Naruto, open the door, it's me!" He didn't respond. "Cub, open the door, please...kit, please!"

...He didn't respond.

* * *

After the introduction of the three Kage to the battle, the enemy nin found themselves overmatched entirely.

Whole platoons of foreign Shinobi were blasted with all manners of Jutsu from the three men defending their village. Of course, that didn't mean those still living weren't fighting their hardest, Hiruzen himself was on the front-lines wielding his Adamantine Staff as effectively as ever, beating down enemy Jonin like they were whimpering Academy students.

But all felt it when the final Jinchuriki standing in the village unleashed her power, rage fueling her actions as she smashed her way through every hostile to cross her path. She didn't know where she was going, nor what that bastard parading as Madara had done with Naruto, but she knew if she ever laid eyes on him again, she would tear him to pieces then piece him back together to do it again so many times that she'd truly earn the nickname of Crimson Medic.

She knew part of her rage was being influenced by Kurama's Chakra, even if he didn't want it to. She knew, but she didn't care, such was her fury. By the time she'd come to a stop, Kurama forcibly cutting his Chakra off from her grasp, every hostile nin had surrendered to Konoha, too afraid of the pure malice and hatred she had been emitting across the village.

She shut her eyes, dropping to her knees and, for the first time in years, she let tears of sadness, of anguish, slip from her eyes. She could feel the moment when Minato Hiraishin'd close-by to her and hurried over, when he knelt beside her, asking her what had happened, trying to get her to respond. She knew that right now Konoha could see her breaking, but she didn't care.

"He's gone..." She breathed, making Minato freeze. Before he could ask, she snatched at his Haori with both hands, her crimson eyes glaring right into his surprised sky-blue. "That bastard took him...he took Naruto." She then widened her eyes, focusing on Minato with a new focus. "You have a Hiraishin marker on him, you can bring him back!" Minato shook his head, earning a look which could have frozen a sun.

"I'm fading already. But, as soon as you can, bring me back, we'll get him back." She looked down at his fingertips. Surely enough, Minato was fading, he'd fought using too much Chakra again, just as she needed him once again. As his hands disappeared, he laid one forearm on her shoulder, forcing her into a hug. "Well, get him back, I promise you."

Though she wanted to rant and rave at him, she knew it wasn't his fault, so she wrapped her arms around the man, drying her tears on his shoulder as he disappeared. Hashirama had already vanished, his Mokuton abilities taking far too much Chakra for what Akari's pool of Chakra contained to sustain him for longer than twenty minutes, quickly followed by his brother, though he retained enough knowledge of how Akari's abilities worked to stay around longer, using the most cost-effective Suiton Jutsu he could to put out fires before he faded away amidst loud cheers and praises from the villagers of Konoha.

To them, it was like the spirits of the Kage's had come back to save them in their darkest hour. To a degree, that was surprisingly true, since it was actually the three Kage's fighting. The difference was that they hadn't appeared because Konoha was in trouble, they appeared because Akari willed them to appear. And unfortunately for Akari, even though nobody was there directly, several people had seen her summon those Kage.

Word spread fast, even amongst a battle-scarred village, until by the time that the battle was declared over, more knew than not that Akari was the one responsible for bringing the three Kage back, even temporarily. Many tried to find her, to beg her to bring back their loved ones, some of whom had died in that very attack, some who had been dead since Kurama's attack, and some from even further before. She avoided them all by staying within her home, her seals making the front door nigh-impregnable by Konoha's masses.

Six days, twenty-two hours, thirty-nine minutes and twenty-seven seconds until she could summon Minato. She knew there were going to be serious repercussions of what had happened. Iwa, Kumo and Kiri attacked Konoha, and they weren't going to take that lying down. She knew at any moment the Hokage or, more likely, one of his ANBU would show up at her door demanding her presence so she could lead the charge against the enemy villages. She knew...and she didn't care.

Thirty-nine minutes and twenty-six seconds.

* * *

**Yep.**

**Tobi has shown up again. After his clan to crush the Uchiha Clan so they wouldn't be able to control any of the Bijuu failed, he went for a more extreme plan, corralling the three villages, stoking their ire, and pointing them at Konoha, giving them a way to slip inside their Jinchuriki by using Kamui, avoiding Konoha's notice until too late.**

**And now he has Naruto.**

**Now, I know some of you may feel that those fights were underwhelming, but I'm trying to make a point here. Akari did none of the fighting, because she didn't need to. Tobirama, Hashirama and Minato are each sufficient to deal with their foes, there's a reason each was feared greatly in their time. This is part of the reason why Akari doesn't use Megami no Mon all the time, because it'd make things boring.**

**Akari wants to have fun, if she's sat there with her arms crossed as Minato and other summoned spirits win her fights for her, she isn't having fun. Now, that's not to say that if an invasion is going on, she won't pull out all the stops to annihilate her foes, since she obviously will. But if she thinks she can win on her own, she won't use Megami no Mon, she'll have fun instead.**

**Tobi though...Minato has just as much reason to cut his balls off as Akari does, so she's more than happy to keep him around. She just has to wait for a full week before bringing him out again, since she can't use his tags, otherwise she'd have already leapt to attack him.**

**She did get experience for this battle, but I won't update her status until she opens her notifications and actually looks at what she got.**

**Hope you enjoyed, I know this is shorter again, but I think you guys would prefer if I released this today to wrap this battle up, rather than cliff-hanging for two days.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 112**

**Age: 17**

**Experience: ****73,921/****112,000**

**To Next Level: 40,268**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 25,000 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 4900/m - 81.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 70**

**Endurance - 70**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 70**


	44. Chapter 44

**Not much to say, so I'll just ask that you leave a review, thanks boos!**

**Wait, I have something! Thank you all so much for 1000 favourites, you all are just...amazing!**

_**Chapter 44**_

* * *

Akari slipped out of a window under cover of the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, avoiding the civilians around her front door.

It had been a day since the attack, and Konoha was already healing. Homes were being repaired, or sometimes knocked down to be rebuilt entirely if they were too damaged or old, like excising a wound. And, despite all the work going on, some people still found the time to camp outside of the door in the hopes of asking her to bring one of their loved ones back to life.

Now, normally Akari would be alright with that, being able to say goodbye for one final time was nice. But when Konoha was still so broken from the attack, it took her considerable resolve to not go out there, grab them all, then drag them to the nearest building site so they could help. Even she wasn't exempt from this effort, she was just a little more focused than others.

Megami no Te was extremely useful for repairing foundations, but where she was more needed was in the hospital, putting her Iryo-nin mastery to good use healing the injured. She'd gotten some time to herself immediately after the attack to recover from, well, everything, but the Hokage had sent an ANBU to inform her that as soon as she was able, she was to go to the hospital to aid them, so after an hour of real-time sitting in her mindscape trying to keep ahold of herself and not sprint out of Konoha to go on a wild chase across the nations uncovering everything she could to find Naruto, she'd headed there and got to work.

During her work, she'd finally opened the notification on the side of the screen, her eyes skimming over the message telling her that she'd earned 27,380 experience for the enemies she'd fought, 25,000 for sealing Kokuo, and then 75,000 for sealing Gyuki. Since she didn't get the kill on Han, she didn't get experience, not even an assist. But since she was directly responsible for B's death, she got 150,000 experience there. This gained her three levels, the points for which were immediately placed into Vitality, Endurance and Luck, since she certainly didn't feel very lucky.

What's more though, she received a quest.

**Quest Received.**

**Shadow of the Past.**

**Objectives:**

**Recover Naruto from his abductor.**

**Kill the man who took him.**

**Reward: 350,000 Experience, 4 Skill Points**

**Hidden Objectives:**

**?**

The four stat points reward amused her, though it also made her freeze up when she considered the implications of such a...specific reward. She clasped a hand around the pendant at her throat, frowning. She'd never had to use the special ability it possessed, so she didn't mind losing it. What she did mind was her life being meddled with again. Her mind ticked over to thinking about the item she received, the one which supposedly could ensure that 273 could never mess with her again.

Attempting to use it simply made it shake and flash an angry red, so evidently 273 wasn't present or manipulating anything. But the fact that her quest has a specifically tailored reward made her suspicious. "Entity?" She probed, waiting a few seconds but receiving no response. "I swear if you're just not saying anything I'll find a way to come there and rip your ethereal balls off." She spoke in a growl.

Truth be told, she wasn't expecting a response, so when text appeared before her, she took a step back.

**Akari. This shall be the last time I speak to you unless in great need. It was decided that upon unlocking of your world, we would remedy any existing issues, of which we are currently doing so, then would re-lock your world. Not quite as extreme, we will still be able to make changes, but not to the degree as before.**

Frowning, Akari wrapped her right arm around the base of her left, feeling the point where her flesh and blood met her artificial arm. "So, what issues do you need to fix?" She gestured towards her arm. "Because honestly?...I don't need this fixed. My artificial hand is actually better in a lot of ways. Sure, I don't have any proper feeling there any more, but I can take blows there just fine. Even if my arm is shattered to a million bits, I can replace it. So, thanks for wanting to fix what shouldn't have happened, but I'm alright."

She felt the pendant around her throat vanish, that was another thing they had to remove, for sure.

**Are you certain?**

She shrugged. "Like I said, I don't need to have my arm replaced, I've already made a better alternative." She got the feeling her words didn't exactly please the Entity, he presumably wanted to tie everything up neatly as before by fixing what issues had appeared, give her a small peace offering, then leave. "Look, if you guys just leave me alone, that's fine by me. Do those custom quests, subtly push me towards a vague representation of canon, whatever, just...don't meddle with my life. I already have enough working away at my psyche."

**I...see.**

Akari pressed her lips together, frowning at the empty air. "Look, Entity, I know none of this was your fault. I just...I just don't want 273 to fuck around with my life again. I want to be able to win this fight, come home, and then just...keep going I guess, I don't want this to end yet."

**...I shall grant that wish.**

Blinking, Akari waited for the Entity to elaborate, but no words were forthcoming. She didn't expect another two notifications to appear. The first was...a pleasant surprise. It said that thanks to the fact that Minato, Hashirama and Tobirama were classified as her summons, she got the experience for their kills.

That meant another three levels worth of experience through all the kills and the experience they earned through assists which got given to her for helping Konoha Shinobi, which she decided to keep banked in case she wanted to boost a specific stat. She momentarily considered the fact that it was dumb to call her stats Skills, but it didn't matter that much, so she didn't bother thinking on it too much. Shaking her head, Akari got back to work, there were still people to save after all. The fact she got experience for each healed patient didn't slip her notice either.

What did slip her notice however was the second notification...

* * *

Sighing as she unlocked her door, Akari slipped through and closed it.

She brushed her hand against the inside wall to reactivate her seals and keep out anybody else, not that it'd matter if that man decided to pay her a visit. It kept civilians and shinobi out, so it was still worth the hassle. Since Minato still couldn't be summoned for another...five days as she checked her menu, Akari decided to test something. She called forth Madara, ignoring the fact she just burnt 25% of her reserves, they'd come back in like five minutes, not a big deal.

Leaning around, she observed him for every side, as well as letting Kurama get a good sense for how his Chakra felt. From what she could tell, the man who attacked her was nothing like the much more imposing Uchiha stood before her. She briefly considered trying to get answers from him by giving the spectre free will, but ruthlessly crushed that. This man could fight against Hashirama confidently, she wouldn't be able to defeat him alone.

She'd certainly be able to hold her own against him for a whole, level 118 was nothing to scoff at, plus with how much she was doing at the hospital, she was steadily raking in small amounts of experience. By the end of the week, she expected to tip over the edge into level 119. But he would almost certainly win at the end of a direct confrontation with Akari, simply due to his experience.

Akari was obscenely good thanks to the Game, but against a veteran of combat, a man who spent his entire life honing his skills, she would come up short eventually, even with her Sharingan aiding her. So instead, she ran her eyes over him, memorizing his body. his face, everything she could about him, and lining that image up with what she saw of 'Madara', as she didn't have a name to call him by.

If she'd observed him, her problems would have been fixed. Just another stupid mistake to add to her growing pile. Perhaps knowing who he was would tell them important information like how exactly he fought, how he could vanish into nothingness, a presence not even visible to her Sharingan, stuff that'd be incredibly important to know before a confrontation with him.

But the biggest mistake of them all...was that Akari had never thought to put her own brand of Hiraishin onto Naruto. For that little slip-up, Akari was honestly ready to punch herself in the face. The only problem with that was that it'd mean she wasn't spending time trying to get more experience, more levels, more strength so when she found that masked bastard, she could rip that damned mask off his face and look into his fucking eyes, at least once before he died.

For taking Naruto from her, there was no hell she wouldn't be willing to inflict on him.

* * *

With four days to go until she could summon Minato, Akari finally got a direct audience with Hiruzen.

She'd been asking the entire time, but with, well, everything that had happened, the man was a bit busy. After all...he'd already seen three Shinobi Wars, he likely hoped one would never happen again, or at least not while he was alive. Unfortunately for him, Kumo, Kiri and Iwa had each attacked without provocation. to not respond would call into question his ability to lead the village in the wake of such a vicious and sudden attack.

But, at least he'd picked up the slack, big time, by recalling Jiraiya and Tsunade under threat of official exile if they didn't return immediately, as well as recalling all active nin to the village for war deployments along the north-west and north-east borders, as well as the southern and eastern coasts. On top of that, school promotions were being reinstated, the same system which saw Akari promoted to Genin early.

He was also clamping down on Jonin, all but forcing several prominent figures, including Kakashi himself, to take teams and train them. If a Jonin didn't have a good reason to not have a team, they received one from the Genin Corps. They needed more soldiers than ever, they simply had too much border space open to allow for coddling on either side of the spectrum.

As for their ally, Suna was apparently locked in a stalemate with Iwa across Kiba no Kuni and Tsume no Kuni, stopping much of the Iwa forces from pressing through Kusa no Kuni and hammering their north-western border. There had already been minor assaults on each of their four exposed borders from advance scouts, the major borders to focus on being the north-eastern and eastern borders, since that was the main direction for Kumo and Kiri to attack from.

The smaller villages weren't getting involved in this war involving the five largest villages. No, they were going to hunker down, taking small chunks of land here and there from whichever village looked as though it would lose the fight. Vice versa, none of the large villages attacked the smaller. Not only did they have bigger fish to fry, if one small village was attacked they would lose for certain, but the rest would immediately gang up on the instigator. None of the large villages had the troops to spare to handle all the other villages attacking at once.

Akari heard the rumor that Tsunade had arrived in the village that day in a fury, only to enter the Hokage's office and come out seemingly placated by something, immediately taking over the hospital from whoever was running it at the time. Considering Tsunade had experience managing the hospital during the Second and Third Shinobi Wars, she was the best for doing so.

There was no rumour of Jiraiya yet, but the spymaster could have been anywhere in the Elemental Nations, possibly as far as Kagi no Kuni, which would take weeks to travel from, so he got a lot more time than the other living Sannin. Tsunade was known to spend most of her time in Tanzaku Quarters, which was an order of magnitude closer than Kagi no Kuni, so her arriving later than a day or two after the recall would be impossible unless she was dead or captured, both very unlikely.

Throwing open the doors to his office when she was told she could enter, she immediately didn't envy Hiruzen's position as Hokage. He didn't look like he had slept since this whole thing kicked off, and from the stacks of paper he was working through, that didn't seem likely to change in the near future. "Hokage-sama, thank you for seeing me." The man gave a curt nod and waved for her to speak, he didn't have time for pleasantries. "I have to ask you to not assign me a mission for four days. At that time I can call Minato forth again to recover Naruto."

The man stopped writing, his pen hovering over the page as he finally looked up and stared into her eyes, searching for the truth in her words. Considering how busy he'd been, it wasn't surprising that he didn't yet know Naruto was gone, she hadn't gotten a chance to speak to him until now, even when she was adamant that she had to discuss this matter as soon as possible. "...I can't promise that Akari-chan. If Kumo or Iwa decide to send their second Jinchuriki's forth to the front lines, we absolutely need you to counter them. I will try my best, but you must understand that you are the linchpin behind our defense. If it's known you cannot leave Konoha for four days, they'll send their Jinchuriki's forth brazenly, knowing that the only one able to fight on even ground with them is trapped at Konoha."

"What about Jiraiya? He can use Fuinjutsu pretty well. I'm sure against Roshi or Yugito he would be able to create a seal and apply it, suppressing their Bijuu." She was about to suggest sending Uchiha, since their Sharingan could control Bijuu, but she bit her lip at that. Just because it could, didn't mean anybody could. As far as she knew, the only ones to control a Bijuu were those who had the Mangekyo. She knew two Uchiha other than her who had unlocked theirs. Shisui was still down a hand and one eye, while Sei's eyes were currently in her own head.

She again cursed the fact they couldn't just swap eyes, but something in the nature of their eyes prevented it. How exactly it worked eluded even her, but it infuriated her none-the-less. "I would normally say yes, except I have no idea how long he will take to return. Don't forget, he has to receive the recall order first, which could take a long time depending on how isolated he is from our messages. On top of that, they could be intercepted, meaning it would take that much longer to reach him." Biting on her thumb, Akari tried to think of another way to ensure she could stay in the village, but nothing came to mind.

Eventually, she dipped her head. "If you're sure Hokage-sama, I just truly hope you can keep me here for that long at least. As soon as I have Naruto back safe in the village, you could throw me into Kumogakure, Kirigakure or Iwagakure with a smile on my face, I'd tear them to pieces. But only after Naruto is home again." Hiruzen dipped his head in agreement, a puff of his pipe being taken in the momentary break he'd received from his paperwork.

"I truly hope so too Akari-chan."

* * *

As it turned out, her absence from the front lines was noticed.

But fortunately enough, while they received word that Kumo's Yugito Nii had left the village heading south, it would take her long enough to reach the border that Akari had time enough to outlast her timer on Minato. While she was waiting, she continued her work in the hospital, never running across Tsunade, possibly a blessing in disguise considering her rather unorthodox skill with the Shosen Jutsu, she kept in touch with her team, keeping them training and keeping their focus off of the war, generally doing anything to whittle down the time until finally, it arrived.

"Three, two, one..." She was about to summon Minato, but froze just as she began. Should she ask someone to help her? Perhaps Kakashi, he was strong? Maybe the Hoka-...no, Hiruzen was far too busy, and besides, Kakashi had to wrangle his new team into shape. Komachi and her boyfriend were both running back-to-back missions, as were all the other shinobi she knew who could have hacked helping her. Anko was also practically sleeping all her nights at the T&I division.

Sighing, Akari looked up at Kurama. "Guess it's just gonna be me, you and Minato then, huh boo?" The fox responded by dropping onto her shoulders and disappearing, his consciousness a familiar presence in her head. "Well, fuck it, let's do this." She summoned Minato and granted him free will, watching him look around for a second before focusing on her. "Hey there Minato. You ready for this?"

His blonde hair shook as he nodded. "I have to be, don't I? This is Naruto we're talking about, I've been ready all week." Her eyes widened. So apparently her spectres knew how much time had passed. "But, before we go, I've been thinking, and...I hope I'm wrong, but I want you to try something..." Minato pulled something from his Haori, unfolding it and revealing a small photograph. "I realized when fighting last week that everything I identify as something I would always carry was brought with me, and this is my team photograph."

Akari looked at it in confusion, then at Minato. It was cute, sure, especially the girl in the middle, but what was his point? "I'd like you to try to summon...-" He pointed at the boy on the left, his most distinctive feature being the large orange goggles he wore. "-this boy. I...hope I'm wrong, but I've got a...a hunch. This won't tell us how he can do the things he does, but at least this will possibly let us put a name and face to our masked man. His name is Uchiha Obito."

Shrugging, Akari made her attempt to summon him, then frowned, shaking her head. "He's still alive, so...sorry if you needed to ask him something, but he hasn't died yet." Minato let out a long exhale, rubbing the side of his head in thought. "You okay there boo?" Her words and the fact she was right beside him, leaning over, startled the man slightly, though he regained his composure quickly./

"Yeah, I-uh...Akari-chan, this is just a theory...more a stab in the dark based on suspicions and vague feelings, but I believe the masked man might be Obito." Blinking, Akari again cursed the fact that she didn't observe 'Madara'. "Though if it is him, I don't know how he came to be so strong, he used to be inarguably the weakest male member of our team, only Rin, who was...was our medic, was inferior to him in terms of combat."

Shrugging, Akari just folded her arms. "Doesn't matter if it is him or not, he took Naruto, he attacked Konoha, and heck, he's even responsible for releasing Kurama and forcing him to attack the village, so...if you're thinking of trying to redeem him, stop. He's done far too much to attack Konoha, and I won't rest until he's six feet under, understood?"

She could tell Minato wasn't happy about the prospect of having to potentially attack one of his remaining students, but even he understood the necessity of taking him down permanently. Akari took his hand as he shut his eyes, presumably focusing on wherever the masked man's Hiraishin marker was, then re-opening them when he got a lock, looking to her for confirmation.

Akari gave it with a smirk, preparing herself for a nausea that never came. She didn't question it though, immediately getting a feeling for the situation they just found themself in, when her jaw dropped. They were in a colossal room, one side dwarved by a massive statue that looked like it was made out of wood, hands cuffed together and a bunch of other features Akari had no time to analyze.

Their arrival had surprised the two inhabitants of the room, the masked man and a weird black and white creature. Akari was ready though, immediately observing the pair and filing away the name of the other as she focused on the mask. "Uchiha Obito, you were right Minato." The now-uncovered Obito took a step back in surprise, the other figure saying something to him before falling into the floor and vanishing from sight. "Where is Naruto?"

Obito pressed on his mask, his voice sounding the same as a week ago when he took Naruto. "And what makes you so sure I would give you that information, little Uchiha?" She growled at the nickname, though another part of her felt worry. It was almost certainly coincidence, but that was exactly what Orochimaru had called her. It was exactly what 273 had called her as well.

She shook off the surprise and settled her stance. "Well, you either tell me, or I prove to you why people never let a medic-nin start torturing them. We know where your most painful places are after all, and we can keep you alive as long as we need to." It was clear from his stance the man didn't take her threats seriously, he believed himself the superior in this fight, even with Minato beside her. But, her observe told her something she didn't reveal, something that told her that she had an advantage.

The fact that he was only level 103.

* * *

**I know it feels like this is moving way too fast, that Akari should have spent longer trying to find Obito.**

**The thing is though, is that Akari would literally rip the moon in two if it meant getting him back. Remember what Kurama said in chapter 24. She didn't succumb to the curse of hatred, she found something even more precious to protect.**

**Now...imagine what would happen if Naruto were to die...**

**final thing...don't get me wrong, I love writing this stuff, but don't begin expecting this story to update every single day. I'm not holding myself to a schedule here everyone, I'm just uploading on the day the chapter is finished, which usually the day after the last one. But...I expect a two, perhaps more, day gap between this chapter and next.**

**Just clearing that up, and sorry if it makes anybody unhappy, but it's one thing I'm firm about, I won't begin forcing myself to finish the chapter just to release it one day after the last, I won't do it.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 118**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 101,097****/****118,000**

**To Next Level: 105,166**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 28,625 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 5625/m - 93.75/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 75**

**Endurance - 75**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 75**

_**15 Skill Points Available**_


	45. Chapter 45

**I just realized that, with this chapter, I've now hit over 650,000 words archived.**

**Since I've only started writing since last June, almost 1 year ago, across an entire year of writing that averages to nearly 1780 words every single day. But I also take breaks, so I could round that up to 2000 words written every single day.**

**That's...nuts to think about honestly. That many words written on average every single day. It blows my mind to think I can honestly write so much, and it really means the world to me to hear all your thoughts on what you liked about my work...**

**So, from the bottom of my cold, nutella-fueled heart...thank you all, so much!**

_**Chapter 45**_

* * *

Landing feet-first on a wall, Akari glued herself there, forming hand-seals as her eyes tracked Obito.

He was good, she'd give him that, but the only reason he was still alive was...well, twofold actually. Firstly, she couldn't kill him until he told her where Naruto was. If he were to die, Akari would lose her chance at finding him. Maybe she could get information from the weird black-and-white guy who fell through the floor, but since tracking him down would be hard, it was unlikely.

But the more obvious reason he was still living despite Akari's increasingly-furious and lethal attacks was because of his intangibility. Any attack she attempted to hit him with simply phased through, leaving her vulnerable to a counter-attack. Minato had yelled a warning about his ability when she first charged him, that was the only reason she didn't have a Kunai in her throat.

She finished her short string of seals, taking a deep breath. "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!" Sure, she didn't have to say it, but it certainly helped her focus, breathing out an apocalyptic amount of flames then coalescing them into the shape of a fire dragon, sending it roaring towards Obito, forcing him into his intangibility.

She didn't know too much about how his ability worked, all she knew was what Minato could tell her. He couldn't selectively set himself to be intangible, he either was, or wasn't. This meant that to attack them, he had to make himself vulnerable. He could also disappear and reappear in entirely different locations, which the Yondaime theorized was some kind of Space-time Ninjutsu, since he was totally invisible to her Sharingan.

The Ryuka no Jutsu was therefore great for forcing him to stay intangible, stopping him from teleporting using his Jutsu, which was another facet. If he was intangible, he couldn't then go invisible and reappear elsewhere, he was stuck moving at normal speed. She kept the flames around him for at least twenty seconds before they petered out, and he looked none the worse for wear, nonchalantly brushing off his shoulder and looking at her.

She couldn't see his face, but she knew the bastard was smirking at her. Minato flashed to his side and swung a Kunai, his arm passing through Obito harmlessly. Obito countered by crouching, which removed Minato's arm from his chest, becoming tangible and performing a leg-sweep, then slamming forwards with his palm into Minato's chest as he fell, managing to strike him faster than a snake before he could Hiraishin away from the blow.

What happened next confused Akari. Minato almost seemed to turn inside-out, then vanished, in a similar function to how Obito made himself disappear. After a few seconds passed and he didn't return, Akari silently checked her menu. He...wasn't dead. She could still vaguely feel him, just as she could feel all her Spectres, but she didn't know where the hell he was or why he wasn't using the Hiraishin marker she was carrying to just come back.

It could have been one of Obito's abilities for whatever the hell he was doing, but for it to override the Hiraishin's ability meant he must have gone to another dimension. Minato was able to use the Hiraishin to transport himself all the way across the Elemental Nations to wherever they now were, yet he couldn't return? Shaking her head, Akari settled into a stance, each of her hands now grasping one of her bowie knives as she drew them from her inventory with a flourish to cover up the retrieval.

Her opponent cocked his head at her. "Even when I remove your strongest ally, you still think you can fight me?" Akari shrugged. She was a higher level, and yet, because she couldn't hit the bastard, that disparity between levels didn't seem to matter. "Keh heh heh, you know, you really are slippery." Akari rolled her eyes, zipping forwards to try and catch Obito while he was talking, though her knife went through his throat with no resistance.

She then took several steps back faster than he could extend his arm. At least him removing Minato tipped her off to yet another ability of his. He could send people to apparently a second dimension, but he seemed to require contact with them. "Well, with how fast I am, if I weren't hard to catch I'd be dead by now. You mind telling me where you sent Minato then, O-bi-to?" She drew his name out, smirking at his reaction as his hands clenched in anger.

"I will learn how you know for certain that you've found my name. I'm sure Zetsu will enjoy pulling the answers out of you." Narrowing her eyes, Akari watched him vanish, only to near-instantly come back only a few steps from where he was. He muttered something quietly, though she still heard it. "Damn you Sensei..." Akari's eyes widened, a real grin coming onto her lips.

"Your phasing ability is still connected to your other dimension." His head jolted towards her as she spoke. "You can't disappear or Minato would be free to attack you in the other dimension, and if you come back here, I can attack you, which probably also means you can't make yourself intangible...wow buddy, you fucked up." Taking advantage of his brief surprise, Akari pulled on all of her speed, bolting forwards and for the first time in their fight, her knife found purchase in his flesh, slamming straight through his hand, then into his shoulder as his arm was forcibly buckled backwards.

His other hand came sweeping to try and hit her, though she merely abandoned her knife and backstepped away from him. "You bitch!" His curse was certainly unexpected, but the new injury was worth sacrificing one of her knives, as he ripped it out of himself then made it disappear. "Oh, you'll certainly feel pain for that one." His voice was low, filled with malice. He probably hadn't been injured in battle for a long time with his ability.

Akari knew better than to assume he was vulnerable now. From the fact he only touched Minato once but sent him somewhere where he couldn't return, she knew that to let him get contact on her would decide the fight, whereas she had to find a way to incapacitate him without killing him...no, sod it, she had to kill him. If she didn't, he would escape into his alternate dimension, and she'd lose her chance to eliminate him. She'd deal with finding Naruto somehow, but she had to put Obito down like the mad dog he was.

Swapping her knife to her right hand, Akari formed a few hand seals, spawning a handful of Shadow Clones, each holding a knife in their hand. His mask swept from one side to the other, looking across her clones, then focusing back on her. All of a sudden, she felt Kurama's chakra surge forwards for a brief moment, then return to the seal. Obito had taken a step forwards, but then came to a stop again, growling under his breath. "Damn Bijuu!"

"Thanks boo." She had only just begun to notice the Genjutsu even with her Sharingan, but Kurama could always tell when there was something affecting her Chakra network. She nodded once, allowing all but two of her clones to start charging around Obito. One leapt with her knife pointed forwards, then rolled to the side to avoid his palm, spinning so the knife swiped across his forearm and drew blood.

As he took a step back, a second clone ran from his side, attempting to swipe at his neck, though he became briefly intangible to avoid the blow, spinning into a high back-kick which struck the clone, dispersing her. He then pivoted into an axe-kick, smashing the arm of the second clone and dispersing her. "Hn." Akari made a noise in her throat, waiting for Obito to focus on her again, keeping her other clones back.

With very deliberate arms, Akari raised her arms into another seal, then she was surrounded by another ten clones. "Tell me where Naruto is, and I'll make this fair, no Shadow Clones, no help from Kurama, just me. You know that if I charged you with all these Shadow Clones, you wouldn't be able to survive. You can't use your ability, Minato has probably laced your entire alternate dimension with Kage Bunshin'd Hiraishin tags. So, what's it going to be? Tell me where he is, or die in agony from a hundred stab wounds while I go hunt Naruto down myself."

Akari was expecting several responses. A rage-filled denial that he'd never give up to a bitch like her, maybe a quiet acceptance of her terms. She certainly didn't expect him to start softly laughing. "You want to know where your little brat is?" Her eyes narrowed, the leather around her knife handle cracking ominously, though he took no notice. "You'd give up such a huge advantage for him...but then again, I suppose we Uchiha do anything for those we love..."

She was about to spit that she knew he wasn't Madara, but remembered that while he wasn't the man, he was still an Uchiha. He began to take his mask off, odd for him to give up an advantage of keeping her from knowing where he was looking, but perhaps he didn't want to be hindered in his vision. "Your little brat is currently in the custody of a good friend of mine, you saw him leave in fact. Zetsu, come out."

The same man emerged from the floor beside Obito, laughing to himself maniacally. "Wow Obito, you got hurt bad, are you okay? **You're pathetic."** She blinked, surprised by the sudden change in attitude and tone from 'Zetsu'. "You want me to give you a hand there? **You look like you need the help."** Obito grit his teeth, the wounds on his hand, arm and shoulder each leaking crimson blood.

Now that she looked at Obito, he certainly wasn't anything like his picture any more. The right side of his face was absolutely fucked up. In fact...he looked kinda like he had wrinkles, though she knew he wasn't that much older than Kakashi. Akari also noticed that his left eye was permanently shut, which made sense since from what she could remember, Kakashi had his left eye right now.

Wait a minute...his eye, the right eye, wasn't in a tomoe pattern, it was in a new pattern, a Mangekyo style shaped as a Shuriken with scythe blades on one side of each blade, lazily spinning as though in flight. It was slightly risky to look directly into a Sharingan, but with Kurama backing her up against any Genjutsu attacks, she wasn't as worried. "So that's your Mangekyo ability huh?"

Obito didn't seem surprised that she pieced it together, merely nodding. "Kamui. Your own abilities are, by comparison, nothing to turn a nose up to. The ability to freely manipulate terrain is worrying, especially your ability to override any Doton Jutsu used in your sphere of influence, but your real ability...I'll admit, the fact you kept one of your abilities secret for years impressed me."

Akari let his compliment fly by her without acknowledgement. "Zetsu, bring the brat here." She grit her teeth, even as her mind spun. Why would they bring Naruto here, unless they were intending to use him as a bargaining chip. She was fast, obscenely so, but if a Kunai was to his throat, considering how fast Obito could move, she wouldn't be able to stop them from stabbing him.

She dispersed a few of her clones, growling quietly to herself though still audible to Obito, then made a few more, but surreptitiously made one with far more Chakra than the others. She didn't yet have the Chakra control to give it a thicker shell, not one like her own hand, but she hoped it could take a single glancing blow without dispersing. All in all, to them, it looked as though her clones had been made in haste with only enough Chakra for a few minutes, their dispersal prompting her to replace them, covering up her creation neatly.

"So, little Uchiha, here's the deal. We give you the brat, and you give us the Bijuu. Or, you can refuse the deal, my friend here can kill the brat, and we rip the Bijuu from your corpse." Though it was unknown to her, Obito was really cursing the fact that Nagato wasn't around right now to simply use the Gedo Mazo in the room to drag the Nine-tailed fox out of Akari.

She shifted in place, folding her arms after placing her knife in her inventory. "Doesn't sound fair to me, so...how about a compromise? I get rid of my Shadow Clones, aside from a few in case of, y'know, foul play, then we fight, see who wins. If I win, I get Naruto back. You win, you get Kurama. You've done your research on me, you know if I wanted, I could level this entire place, do you really want to push me by threatening my cubs life?" She emphasized her threat by brushing a hand nonchalantly against the seal holster on her leg, his eye tracking the motion then tracing her body before finally returning back up to her face. "And no, your little buddy can't help. One on one fight."

She met his eye with her own vision, only looking away briefly when Zetsu reappeared from the ground, Naruto's unconscious body being brought with him. She knew she'd never get to him in time, but it still took a lot of willpower not to try and bolt over there immediately then grab him, before using the Hiraishin to get them both away to Konoha.

Looking him over, he looked none the worse for wear, almost as though he was just sleeping. At least they put some value into their fucking hostage. "Try anything funny, and Zetsu makes your little brat into a pincushion." The black side of the creature curled its lips up, several black spikes protruding from its hand. Akari rolled her eyes at the threat.

"Well duh. I'm the one who asked for this little wager anyway, so going back on it would be pretty stupid. Though, if you two are harbouring thoughts of not honouring this little agreement..." Akari drew a scroll from her leg holster and handed it off to one of her clones. "Let's just say that she's my insurance. You might be fast, but I can guarantee my Kyokai-sen Fuinjutsu is faster."

Obito stared at the clone as it stepped back, then down at her. "You've got a deal." Grinning, Akari flicked two handfuls of Senbon into her fingers, lowering herself down, ready to toss in a moments notice. Then, Obito flashed into motion, using the Shunshin no Jutsu in conjunction with his Sharingan to press towards her, his fingers questing for a mere brush of contact with her so he could perform his Jutsu.

Akari countered this by merely stepping to one side, throwing her Senbon at his arm as he turned to try and sweep his palm across into her face. Four of the Senbon sunk into his arm, all on the underside of his forearm. The rest continued their path, clattering against a wall as Akari ducked his arm, turning as she moved to cover the retrieval of more Senbon, then underhand-tossing them at his torso.

This time he was ready for the attack, avoiding it with a leap. As he came down, he tried to form hand seals, but then froze up, suddenly wrenching the Senbon out of his arms. "Poison?" Grinning, Akari twirled a Senbon across her fingers, letting him see the clear fluid on the metal rod. Four of her special mix had been inflicted, meaning that if he had an average amount of vitality and endurance for a level 103, he had about five minutes before he was dead.

"Yep. You should have kept a closer eye on me. Sure, I've never used it publicly, but you coulda watched the stuff I was buying. Hmm, then again, I buy lots of crazy shit." Akari watched his face contort into pain for a moment, the nastier poisons gaining prominence. "Want to call the match there? This stuff'll kill you in maybe...four minutes, thirty seconds from now. Maybe if you let me send Naruto back to Konoha with a clone I'll extract it for ya." It was total bullshit and both of them knew it. If Obito let her get close enough to extract her poison, she was far more likely to plunge a knife into his sole remaining eye.

No, instead he got up from the knee he'd fallen to when the pain wracked his body, surprising Akari with his fortitude. That...didn't bode well. If he could stand despite the poison running through his veins, he must have had an obscene level of VIT and END, reducing some of the effects of her poison. Then again, if he was presumed dead from a major accident, but he survived, he must have had a hell of a lot of willpower.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." Akari mumbled, filling her hand with more Senbon. Obito looked back towards Zetsu, gritting his teeth when he turned back around as the white side gave him a jaunty wave. Akari had to stop herself from snorting at the by-play. She clicked the Senbon in her hand together a few time, her eyes keeping a wary eye on Obito. The onus was on him to do something, otherwise her poison would kill him.

After a brief moment, he began forming hand seals. Her Sharingan watched the sequence, and she quickly figured out which he was using. "Predictable." Though she wasn't comfortable at all doing what she was about to, Akari began forming hand seals at an even faster rate than Obito, surprising him with her haste. Hey, she'd had nearly ten years experience grinding her Hand Seals proficiency, she was damned fast at it now.

As he finished his own chain of seals and inhaled, she did the same, the pair of them yelling their Jutsu's one after the other. "Katon: Goka Mekkyaku!" Obito yelled, spewing out a maelstrom of flames, filling the entire room in front of himself with flames. Akari countered with her own, far more unorthodox Jutsu.

"Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu!" She spat out a torrent of water which, by comparison for Obito's colossal flame, was pitiful, immediately enshrouding herself with the water. Except, while her ball of water was small compared to his colossal flame, there was one major difference. Akari could keep spitting out water far longer than Obito could maintain his flames. All she had to do was keep her water prison around herself, and she'd survive this without a scratch, and with a comparatively bargain-bin Chakra cost.

She could feel the moment that Obito's flames crashed over her prison, trying desperately to evaporate her protection away and burn her flesh, but she simply kept her output of Chakra, forcing more and more water into existence. After thirty seconds, Obito's flames died as fast as they came, vanishing entirely and revealing the horrendous burn damage caused to their area. Akari released her own Jutsu after a few more moments, immediately taking some deep breaths.

She could hold her breath quite well, but if he'd been able to fuel that Jutsu for longer than two minutes, she'd be toast, since she knew no water-breathing techniques, relying on her own oxygen capacity to sustain herself, perhaps a fatal oversight. As she refocused on Obito, she could see that even with his constitution, her poison was wreaking its havoc on his body.

His arms swept into another pose, beginning to form more hand seals, when he stopped and frowned, looking behind Akari, then around himself. Akari waited a moment as he turned around to eye her with suspicion, his eye widening as he realized what had slipped his notice. Akari had made several Shadow Clones, dispersing all but three as their faith started. There was the one holding a scroll, then two guarding that one.

But by the time he used the Goka Mekkyaku, they'd vanished. As he turned to yell a warning at Zetsu, they struck, several dozen Senbon stabbing deeply through Zetsu's body, one of her clones immediately snatching away Naruto's body from him. The clone holding Naruto then shut her eyes for a brief moment, vanishing with a crimson flash. Obito turned with a growl, his eye swirling madly as he realized Akari's game, only to widen in disbelief when a blade pierced his forehead, killing him instantly.

A second later, the Kusanagi retracted. Cricking her back, Akari zipped over to Obito's body, bringing her blade down across his neck to sever his head. His brain had already been stabbed through, but she wasn't taking a single fucking chance with that bastard. At the same time, she mentally dismissed Minato to restart the timer so she could bring him back to tell him what happened. Considering he hadn't appeared, he was likely stranded after Obito's death.

Hearing one of her clones yelp in surprise then feeling her disappear, her gaze snapped up just in time to watch Zetsu's form disappear into the ground. "Shit." She dipped her chin, quickly pulling a body-storage scroll from her inventory and sealing Obito's corpse and his severed head away. Apparently just in time, as a white hand emerged just as his head vanished, snatching around empty air.

The hand receded before Akari could do anything. She did hop up onto the shoulders of her last remaining clone, just in case Zetsu had the same ability Obito had which required skin contact, but her theory didn't support that, nor did the freakshow emerge anywhere again. Releasing a sigh she'd been holding onto since Obito was decapitated, Akari then chuckled to herself. "Huh, so first Orochimaru was decapitated, now Obito. What next, I decapitate a tellytubby?" She shivered at the mental image, which was followed by her being chased by the other three in a mad rage, wielding spiked baseball bats. "Maybe not." She dismissed her final clone, planted a Hiraishin tag of her own making into a nook in the roof of the building just so she could come back later if needed, then planted her hands into her pockets as she focused on her Hiraishin tag at home.

It was time to see Naruto again.

* * *

**Well that was fun!**

**I hope you enjoyed, please leave a review if you did! And tell me if you didn't enjoy parts as well, I ADORE criticism, it tells me what I did wrong, so I can get better at writing!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 118**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 101,097****/****118,000**

**To Next Level: 105,166**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 28,625 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 5625/m - 93.75/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 70**

**Vitality - 75**

**Endurance - 75**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 296**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 75**

_**15 Skill Points Available**_


	46. Chapter 46

**It was brought to my attention recently that the "Kiri-Woka no Jutsu" is misnamed.**

**For Mist-Walker Technique, it should be the "Moya-Oshiguruma no Jutsu", so now there's a decision to make. Do you think I should change it all around, convert all the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu to the new one, or should I just let it slide and keep on as it is? I'll be honest, I'm biased towards keeping it as the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, just based off the fact it sounds better, despite the fact it's not actually correct, but it's up to you all!**

**On with the chapter!**

_**Chapter 46**_

* * *

When Akari arrived home in the relative privacy her room, she immediately felt the presence of other people in her home.

She could feel Naruto, her Shadow Clone, but she could also make out the signatures of her Genin team. Sighing, Akari quickly whipped off her vest, replacing it with a clean one, dumping the blood-stained one into her inventory, then slinging her door open and heading to the stairs, leaning around the corner to peer down into the living room from above.

Her Shadow Clone was idly patting Naruto's head, who was still resoundingly unconscious. Since her clone was about as smart as she was, she knew the clone would have already made sure he wasn't actually under a Genjutsu or something else making him stay unconscious, meaning he was just asleep, and would wake up in his own time. Her team were all sat on the other side currently interrogating her on where exactly she'd been, since they'd come in only to find an empty house, then for her clone to suddenly appear in the living room and make them all freak out.

"Kits, you know you're talking to a clone, right?" She chirped, grinning down at them all from her place upstairs when their heads all shot towards her. She stepped down the stairs casually, coming to an abrupt stop by flopping onto the sofa with a groan. "Gimme!" She took Naruto from her clone, who dispersed after a second, leaving her to adjust him on her lap.

Sure, she knew her clone had already checked him thanks to the memories she received as her clone dispersed, but it still felt wrong to not know for sure herself that he was alright. "Akari-sensei, what's going on?" She waved a hand at Tachiko, focusing on Naruto for the time being. After making absolutely sure he was without a shadow of a doubt alright, she finally looked at her Genin.

"Well, you know I told you three to keep doing what you already were, to take D-ranks under my name, stay out of trouble, yadda-yadda? Well, I was busy working at the hospital, but Naruto had also been, well, kidnapped is the easiest way to put it." She ran a hand softly through Naruto's hair as she spoke. I'm not saying anything about how, who, why, because all of that is probably gonna end up being an S-rank secret, but I can tell you that I got the bastard, Naruto is back, and we're now probably going to be re-assigned to the Yu no Kuni border on account of Kumo's second Jinchuriki heading towards us."

Akari didn't know which part of it surprised her Genin most, to be honest. Everything seemed pretty drastic after all. Brushing Naruto's hair around, Akari waited for her team to ask a question, eventually raising her gaze from the blonde tresses she was toying with the look at her Genin, prompting Aiko to ask her a question. "So Sensei, you'll be working with us again?"

Rolling her eyes, Akari looked back down at Naruto. "Well duh, you're not getting rid of me that easily. Unless...you wanted to be rid of me?" Her Genin each gave their open varying levels of reaction to that, all very much so adamant about not getting a different Jonin-sensei. Then again, she was probably their best choice, since she was a damn good cook, great at Fuinjutsu, she could play music during long journeys, and a bunch of other stuff she didn't bother thinking about.

Feeling Naruto shift, she grinned, her hand still brushing at his hair as his eyes blinked open. "Kaa-san?" She shifted her grin to a smile, nodding at him. "W...what happened?" He tried to sit up, slumping back down and burrowing into his face into her midriff. "I'm tired..." Her smile faded a little.

"Cub, you've been gone for a week..." His body twitched, unburying his head to stare at her in disbelief. "I'm guessing you've been asleep the whole time then huh boo?" He nodded slowly, his hands fisting on her vest. Sighing, Akari nudged him into a sitting position on her lap, supporting his back with one arm. "Well you're back now. And...I've got good and bad news for you Kit."

She gave his hair a final tousle, looking towards her Genin. "Who here has heard of the ability I showed off during the attack?" Her three Genin shook their heads. "Well, just be warned, this might surprise ya a little." Akari then summoned Kushina, giving the woman free will, the arrival of whom stunned the three Genin. As the redhead looked around in curiosity, she cleared her throat. "Kushina, good to see ya." Akari attracted the woman's attention, getting her neck suddenly wrapped up in a crushing hug at a speed she couldn't follow, since her Sharingan was currently off.

"You aren't escaping this time Akari-chan, you're staying right here and telling me everything that's happened." Kushina finally seemed to notice the three Genin in the room, her words forgotten as she let go of Akari and approached the three baffled kids, a finger poking Aiko's Hitai-ate. "Awh, Akari-chan, are these your very own adorable little Genin? They're so cute!"

While Kushina was distracted, Akari felt Kurama slip out of the seal into his Familiar form, staring at his previous Jinchuriki a moment while she looked away, then hopped up onto Akari's shoulder, settling across her neck and lazily looking at Akari. **"You know, I thought I'd be angrier to meet her."** Kurama's distinctive voice made Kushina tense up, turning around briskly, chains sprouting from her back.

"Peace, Kushina! He won't hurt you if you don't hurt him. Besides, he's the only reason me and Naruto aren't in Danzo's tender custody. Without him, I'd be stuck in a Genjutsu and Naruto, well, I don't want to know honestly." The Uzumaki woman stared at Akari in disbelief for a few moments, her gaze flicking between her and Kurama, before she huffed, her half-formed Adamantine Sealing Chains dispersing into the air.

"Do I even want to know what you've been up to?"

* * *

When in the safety of her room, Akari finally opened her notifications, releasing a long sigh as she looked through the list.

Firstly, she completed the quest for getting Naruto back, flicking her eyes down at the hidden objectives with a groan.

**Quest Completed.**

**Shadow of the Past.**

**Objectives:**

**Recover Naruto from his abductor - Completed.**

**Kill the man who took him - Completed.**

**Reward: 350,000 Experience, 4 Skill Points**

**Hidden Objectives:**

**Uncover who exactly the man behind the mask is - Completed.**

**Use a Jutsu of each nature during your battle - Incomplete.**

**Reward earned - 150,000 Experience each, 150,000 experience earned**

Those Hidden Objectives were seriously bullshit sometimes. How the fuck was she supposed to know to use one of each Jutsu? She knew one of each, she just didn't need to use each Nature during the fight. Muttering under her breath, she swept the reward notification away, bringing up her stats screen. She placed the bonus four points into her Agility, rounding it off at a neat 300. She pushed ten to her strength, five to Vitality, Endurance and Luck, bringing each to eighty, keeping fifteen points in reserve for whatever she wanted to play with next, since 300 Agility seemed fast enough.

There was a notification she missed, one she now remembered receiving when she spoke to the Entity. She brought her notifications back up, opening the one she'd ignored. Then, she froze. "Did...I'm going to fucking kill him." Apparently he thought it would be funny to...Akari just exhaled, reading the notification again, then cursing quietly to herself.

**Boon Granted - Ageless**

**You have been locked as your current age.**

That sounded like absolute and utter bullshit. "So what, I'm just stuck at 17 now?" Unfortunately, the Entity was not forthcoming with that information. Growling to herself, Akari dismissed the notification, bringing up her status and noticing the question mark beside her age. She focused on it, hoping it would give her more information, but apparently not.

Folding her legs, Akari sat down on the floor, holding her head in her hands. "Ageless...some fucking Boon you bastard." Sure, on the surface it sounded nice, being able to experience everything the world had to offer. But on the other hand, it meant she was forced to watch Naruto, her family and all her friends grow up, grow old then die around her.

As she gnawed on her lip trying to figure out what to do, she was ambushed by a mass of fur leaping onto her shoulders from above. **"Akari, what's wrong?"** Tipping her head to look at Kurama, she managed a small smile. At least he was around. Reaching over, she rubbed at his head a little, snorting when he batted at her hand in irritation.

"Oh nothing...just, you remember that Entity that dragged you and Hiruzen into helping me?" The fox rolled his eyes, as though he'd forget. "Well, he spoke to me again, and from something I fucking off-handedly mentioned, he...he made me ageless..." Kurama stared at her for a few moments, hopping off her shoulder and sitting in front of her. "I'm not kidding, he..."

Slumping backwards, Akari stared up at the ceiling, feeling Kurama hop up and sit on her midriff. **"...I'm sorry."** She rolled her head upwards to look at Kurama, a thin smile on her lips. **"I know how agelessness can...destroy what you once loved."** Shifting carefully, Akari sat back up, Kurama moving to sit on one of her thighs. **"I guess this means we're stuck together forever then?"**That at least brought a grin to Akari's face, lowering her forehead to butt against his.

"I guess so."

* * *

"So, Yu no Kuni, right?"

The Hokage nodded, his pipe between his lips even as he read the paper on his desk. "Correct. I understand you have resolved your problem now, which means I can send you out freely?" Akari gave an affirmative to that. "Good. You will have to make haste, the hostile Jinchuriki is nearing Kumo's border with Yu no Kuni. If Yugito Nii is allowed to enter Konoha's borders, she could wreak an incredible amount of damage before being stopped."

"Wait, did I never...no, I never did, oops. I know the Hiraishin now, Minato taught me." The old man looked directly at her, then slumped a moment, holding his head in his hands and muttering. "I mean, I couldn't exactly tell you outright, that would then beg the question of how I learned it since you knew I didn't have it when he died or I would have used it far more brazenly. I mean, now that the cats out of the bag about Megami no Mon I have the perfect excuse for any of my Jutsu, I just summoned someone who knew and convinced them to teach me, or fought them when they refused then stole the Jutsu with my Sharingan."

"I suppose so. Still, it would have been good to have been informed of these developments." His voice was chiding, but Akari knew that he understood why she'd tried to hard to keep it a secret. Now that she was strong enough to fend off anyone who would attack her to try and force her to do what they wanted, having Megami no Mon be out in the open wasn't a huge deal. But before, if she'd revealed it when she was about level 60, she wouldn't have even been able to fend off a single high-tier Jonin, let alone several. "Are you going to take your Genin team with you? This could be a valuable learning experience for them, but also carries the chance they will get into a situation they can't handle."

Akari responded to this by making a Shadow Clone. "It could, which is why I'm going to make a few Shadow Clones to tail each of them, then if they ever get into trouble, the clones can just run to them using my Agility, then grab them and Hiraishin them to wherever they need to go. Or maybe I can just plant a Hiraishin on each of them, that'd make it even faster..." Akari trailed off with a thoughtful hum. "By the way, totally forgot, I...uhh, I kinda sealed Gyuki and Kokuo before Han and Killer B died, so...yeah."

The Hokage hid his face behind his hat, muttering about crazy Uchiha.

* * *

Dipping under a wild swing, Akari kicked upwards against the shaft of the Sodegarami her enemy was wielding, wrenching the Kunoichi's arms painfully upwards.

With a single step, she slipped to the side beneath the polearm and snatched the hair of her enemy, the Kumo-nin letting out a brief yell of pain before Akari's Kunai found purchase in her throat, quickly parting the vertebrae in her neck. With casual ease, Akari swept the blade from one side then the other, decapitating the woman. She flicked the blade then dropped it into her inventory casually, looking around the battlefield for her team.

They'd reached the border to Yu no Kuni a day before the Kumo Jinchuriki's group did, her presence warding away the enemy Jinchuriki from attacking, presumably for fear of her Bijuu being forcibly extracted, which would put Kumo at a serious disadvantage. That didn't stop Kumo from assaulting the Konoha border, being intercepted by Akari and her team.

The attacking force numbered in hundreds, which without Akari's presence would have forced Konoha to dedicate more troops to the attack. However, even before becoming a Jinchuriki, Akari killed hundreds in a single battle. This time though, she didn't replicate the same attack. No, instead, she allowed the two forces to clash, giving her Genin valuable combat experience against hostile-nin, though always under the wary eyes of her Shadow Clones.

To give the entire thing the visual idea of being a true battle, she'd moved into position whilst creating Shadow Clones, each of them immediately Hengeing into random Konoha-nin she vaguely remembered, thus giving the illusion that Konoha were dedicating a number of troops to this engagement, when in fact it was just Akari, three Genin, and a hundred or so Shadow Clones.

In doing this, she also freed up the actual Konoha-nin on the border to assault a distance away, pressing through Yu no Kuni while she tied up a considerable portion of Kumo's army. Ducking another sword-strike, Akari didn't even stab her enemy with a blade. No, her hand merely plunged through his chest, shattered his rib-cage, then her fist burst his heart.

Gripping tightly, she threw his body in the way of a brace of Senbon, ignoring the fact her face had become slightly blood-splattered as she focusing on the Shinobi who threw the Senbon, her gaze travelling up his blade before she snorted. He wasn't even holding the damn thing correctly the poor Chunin. Before he could even react, Akari had already moved, not even using her Sharingan as she gave herself enough speed to be too fast to track, but still a controllable amount, coming to a stop beside the man.

She kicked out at his hand, then spun, using her foot to hook against his shoulder, finally bringing her other leg around and striking the side of his jaw. The force of the kick snapped his head around more than a hundred and eighty degrees, the crackling and popping sound of vertebrae shredding audible to those nearby. She finished her combo by slapping a seal onto his dead torso, then flipped off of him whilst brutally striking a boot against the seal on him, sending him flying whilst at the same time lighting the fuse.

His corpse sailed through the Kumo-nin ranks, coming to a bloody stop after carving a shallow furrow in the ground. A cry of alarm as the seal was stopped gave the Kumo-nin a fraction of a window to react before he detonated in a bloody mess, bone fragments buzzing outwards to lacerate and maim. All in all, the explosive tag itself only killed two Nin, but the fragments made by his shattered skeleton injured far more.

With a flick of her arm, Akari got rid of a little blood which was drying, then using that hand to smear the blood on her face, making sure it didn't interfere with her vision. After a few seconds of relative peace, Akari spotted her next target, a group of three Genin. For a brief moment, she felt bad about having to kill what looked like thirteen or fourteen-year-olds, but they signed up for this, they knew what they were getting into, just as her team understood that doing this job, they could die at any moment.

With a shallow breath, Akari lunged.

* * *

"Uhh, Sensei, can we talk?"

Looking up from her place cleaning the Kusanagi, Akari gestured at the floor beside her. "Be my guest. What's on your mind then Hikaru?" She swept her rag down the edge of the blade again, each time removing some of the blood marring the weapon. "Let me guess, still having issues coping?" The boy nodded. It wasn't surprising, even after more than a year he still wasn't keen on killing. Today saw his first battle against enemy Genin, which seemed to have rattled him.

Setting aside the Kusanagi, Akari sighed, resting her chin on the palm of one hand as she faced him properly. "Hikaru, you know I won't always be there to protect you, right?" Though his face was confused, he nodded slowly. "That one day, you're going to have to fight someone you aren't comfortable fighting? Because...I remember my first time having to kill an enemy Genin."

Hikaru shifted in place, the better to listen to her speak. "It was during the Third Shinobi War, obviously. Now, by this point I'd already lost my team and Sensei, I was just free-floating, but spent practically all my time healing. So, I get dragged into the front-line medic squad, then immediately end up making my own way of being a medic, a combat-medic, since I hated staying stationary and letting the Nin who could move come to me, I wanted to save those unable to move, so I did. Now, I come across the Genin, hovering over a wounded Kunoichi with a Kunai in his hand, obviously conflicted." At this point, Hikaru was pretty enraptured.

After all, Akari didn't really go into depth about her past often. "So...I moved. Where he hesitated, I know I couldn't. If I did, it might have galvanized him, and that Kunai would have found its way into her throat. She'd be dead, and it would have been my fault for not acting, her blood on my hands. So...where he did, I didn't hesitate...I cut his hand off, then embedded my own Kunai into his throat. I couldn't look away, not when he was still la vague danger, so I had to stare at point-blank range as he died." Rubbing her face, Akari pulled a smile back on, though it was fainter than usual. "And ever since then, I just picture that scene. If I don't make sure to eliminate or maim my enemies, they'll just hurt someone else. Never forget that, especially in a war, every enemy that you let flee is another enemy who will kill your friends, family, your fellow Shinobi."

Leaning back, Akari gestured around them. "That's why nobody here wants to hesitate, to let an enemy run from the battlefield. Because two days later, that same enemy could be the one responsible for killing three of our own Nin. It's a classic tale of them vs us." Leaning to the side slightly, she poked Hikaru's chest. "It's up to you to decide if you want to risk that. If you want to let that one Genin flee, you have to bear the knowledge that perhaps one day later, perhaps three, or maybe a week or more, that Genin might kill two Konoha-nin, or three, five, however many, all because you let them go.

Sitting up again, Akari sighed. "Now, that's not to say never let anyone flee." She picked up the Kusanagi again, spinning a rag around her fingers. "But don't forget this Hikaru,-" Akari's eyes darkened, focusing on her blade as she continued cleaning it of the blood marring the surface.

"-...we're at war."

* * *

**Boos, I don't often...or ever really, do this.**

**If you like this story, please consider going over to DarkGear to read their Overlord gamer story, The Clockwork Empress. It is an absolutely incredible story, and the fact that it's not more popular is just absolutely infuriating. They seriously deserve more love, so please, if you like this story, go and read theirs, don't forget to leave a review if you liked it!**

**This is probably going to be the last chapter until Friday, I'm going to take a little break. This isn't guaranteed, I might still upload on Thursday, or I might not write anything until Saturday, who knows. ****Just a heads up.**

**Also...her ageless thing...I'm like 75% sure I'm going to be removing it. I don't like having my characters grow up, probably says a fucking lot about me, but I don't. It just feels a bit forced though, so it's probably going to go away. I was trying to set it up for the future.**

**In case you don't know, I plan to do a split for this story. War Dog itself will end, but I'm going to then make a sequel spin-off, where Akari doesn't stop, instead she goes to another Universe like Starcraft or Warhammer, I think it'd be fun. I wanted her to be ageless for that, but I don't know how to incorporate it, maybe she gets an upgrade or something from Hagoromo. ****I dunno!**

**Don't forget that the reason Akari's exp jumped is because she got a bunch of kills fighting that Kumo attack off, since all those Shadow Clones were her.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 123**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 65,452****/****123,000**

**To Next Level: 57,548**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 32,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6400/m - 106.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 80**

**Vitality - 80**

**Endurance - 80**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 300**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 80**

_**15 Skill Points Available**_


	47. Chapter 47

**Seems most people think the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu sounds better.**

**So, I entirely acknowledge that it's incorrect, but it'll be remaining as such, owing to the fact it sounds cool, plus going through 20+ chapters fixing it is just gonna be annoying. I mean, saying Mist Walker Technique...it just doesn't have the same...zing as Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, does it?**

_**Chapter 47**_

* * *

"Got room for one more?"

Leaning back, Akari's face lit up. "Anko!" Bolting up, she wrapped an arm around the woman, immediately noticing the albino python resting over her shoulders. "Monty!" She watched with a beaming smile as the snake slid along her arm, momentarily pausing to stare at Kurama, who glanced up at the snake before relaxing back down, then simply settled for coiling around Akari's arm, planting her head in place to flick her tongue at Akari. "Awh, hello boo." She stuck a finger out, gently brushing against Monty's nose as her eyes met Anko's. "So, you're being deployed out here as well Anko?"

Sitting down, Anko stretched out her legs, her back against the fallen tree Akari was using as a backstop. "Ugh, yep. We didn't need everyone in T&I, so we got a lucky draw out of everyone who has skills other than peeling skin or whatever. I and about ten others got sent out a few days ago. I know some of 'em are heading to help Suna out, but half of us ended up here. So, I heard a funny rumour. Apparently, the Crimson Medic has pulled off another incredible feat?" Groaning, Akari rolled to the side slightly to ignore Anko, though she wasn't to be ignored. "So, what'd ya do? Did you kill that Yugito bitch?"

With a sigh, Akari rolled back, looking towards Anko. "You aren't going to drop this are you?" The snake-mistress gave a vehement shake of her head. "Ugh, fine. So, we get this alert, there's an advance party of Kumo-nin coming, at least a hundred strong. Now, Nezu, the guy running this whole section, starts prepping to send a party to meet them, myself included. I stop him, tell him I'll handle it. Well, me and my team."

Akari went on to discuss exactly what happened during the fight, Anko constantly interjecting, asking questions, making jabs at her skill as well as her Genin's abilities. "So then I cut the guy's testicles off." Anko guffawed at that, covering her mouth when the nearby Nin looked at her. "Hey, Anko?" When she turned back around, Akari looked first at her, then at Monty. "You know...you've looked after Monty here for years now...how about it? Do you want to keep her?" Anko's eyes widened, looking between Akari and the Albino Python. "I still want to see her, she's so precious, but...with everything happening, I know you'd do a way better job at looking after her than I ever would. Besides, she's practically yours already." Akari punctuated this by extending her arm towards Anko.

What she did not expect to happen though was for Anko to suddenly lunge forwards to wrap her arms around Akari. "You mean it?" She nonchalantly slipped away the Kunai she'd drawn, wrapping one arm around Anko, the other still holding Monty. Slowly, she placed Monty onto Anko's shoulder, meeting the snakes gaze calmly.

"I do...just, I know I'd never have to tell you this, but...look after her." Akari ran her finger under Monty's chin, resolutely not tearing up. She'd had Monty since she was only around eleven years old, but in the six or so years since then, she hadn't really been able to do much with Monty, life kept getting in the way, which was not what the beautiful snake deserved. Giving her to Anko meant she'd experience more, plus Anko knew way more about snakes than she did, she'd ensure Monty had a good life.

And if anyone ever said she cried saying goodbye to Monty, well, her Senbon were particularly slippery around them.

* * *

"We've got three more squads trying to flank on the left."

Warning her team and clones about the oncoming flank manoeuvre, Akari watched at least a dozen of her clones react in unison, all bolting off in that direction to stymie their attack with a violently sudden charge. It gave her a bit of a dull headache if she dispersed too many clones at once, eventually ramping up to full-blown migraines and beyond with the onslaught of memories, but since she was so fast, her clones were also incredibly swift, meaning very few ever actually died.

One of her clones was defeated by a combined Jutsu of Wind and Fire from two Chunin, but they were then taken out by a hail of Senbon from another Clone. It seemed Kumo had smartened up to her actions, realizing she was merely an army of Shadow Clones, not actually a group of Konoha-nin, so she dropped the Henge. Even if they knew she was using Shadow Clones, they still couldn't break her lines. Plus, with her speed, she could easily redeploy to cover vast swathes of land.

That was something she freely revealed now, knowing it would throw her enemies, but Iwa especially, off their game to know that somebody learned the Yondaime's signature Jutsu. She just wished she hadn't been slapped with a brand new, extremely predictable, moniker.

**Title: The Crimson Flash - 50% Chance to make Iwagakure Genin flee on sight, 25% for Chunin, 10% for Jonin**

It was the first title Akari didn't have to equip, so she didn't. Sure, Sannin-slayer didn't seem to have actually caused anything yet, but she wasn't fighting Iwa-nin yet, so it was pointless. Plus, she wanted to know what those future opportunities are, if any. Perhaps with her actions, all the possible scenarios for using the title have been accidentally bypassed.

Sidestepping a sword-thrust, Akari broke the Jonin's hands with ease, her strength and speed being so laughably superior that doing so was easier than throwing a Kunai. As he screamed in pain, Akari commended his resolve, as he still tried to attack her by forcing his hands to grasp a Kunai. Unfortunately, this exacerbated his injury, forcing bone shards through his skin.

That was the problem with fighting her, she knew enough about the body to pick the perfect spots to strike. The wrist was an exceptionally nasty target since with so many parts revolving around it, even a single Senbon in the right place could entirely lock a hand up, causing catastrophic damage if the target tried to move their fingers or palm at all. She quickly put a stop to his screaming by grabbing his head in both hands, a loud crack sounding as she snapped his neck, then she let his carcass fall to the ground with a thump.

Against enemies like these...she didn't even need her Sharingan. Blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, Akari formed several hand seals, inhaling deeply as she condensed her Chakra. She had to thank Obito for this one, she'd never bothered learning it before that fight. "Katon: Goka Mekkyaku!" She sprayed a colossal flame out of her lips, her nose immediately filling with the stench of charred flesh as she swept a swathe of destruction through the enemy force, killing a few clones in the process. Since they each only cost 150 Chakra, that wasn't a big deal. The Goka Mekkyaku, on the other hand, was remarkably expensive, to the tune of 100 Chakra Points per second.

But, as she cut the flame off after ten seconds and looked at the flame-scarred battlefield, she knew it was worth it. The few Kumo-nin who survived her attack were fleeing like dogs, their group centre having been shattered with a single devastating Jutsu. She leaned back, taking a breath or two to recover, then sprung into action, crossing the gap between her and the nearest Nin as if it were a mere single step. She nearly overshot her target, since she still wasn't quite used to even 50% of her top speed, but she was learning slowly.

The Shinobi tried to spin around at the sound of her movement, but by the time he turned halfway, a Senbon was already stabbed through his neck. She left the weapon in the wound, her poison would ensure his death even if the punctured trachea didn't. Spinning another three Senbon on her fingers, she flung them out at random, two of them finding flesh whilst the third was haphazardly deflected as the enemy Kunoichi ducked, the metal point skittering off her Hitai-ate since she'd turned her head on instinct alone.

With a hum, Akari Shunshin'd to her side, looking at the girl in curiosity. "Well now, I wonder where your Jonin-sensei is...probably incinerated, huh? Tough luck I guess." She tossed a Senbon casually at the girl, not wanting to drag out the death of a child. She was surprised though when the girl actually had the skill to pull a Kunai and deflect her attack.

Sure, it was slow, but it was still faster than your average Genin could deflect, even her Genin wouldn't have been able to deflect it like that. "Y-you killed her you bitch!" Her eyebrows rose as the little Kumo Genin actually yelled a cry and attacked her. She had guts. She avoided the sweep of the Kunai as she looked closer at the girl. Red hair, dark skin, amber eyes, she was kinda cool-looking.

Nodding once to herself, even if it was too fast, Akari drew a different Senbon from her usual poisoned ones, slipping past the girl's arms as they practically dragged in slow-motion, her fingers dipping the Senbon just a centimetre or two into the flesh on her arm. "I've decided, you get to live. As a prisoner, but meh, details." As the girl collapsed in utter disbelief, the anaesthetic already taking hold, she turned and swept a quick look over the battlefield.

Her clones had already taken the liberty of hunting down the rest of the fleeing Kumo-nin, letting not a single one survive. She caught the Kunoichi's body as it fell, sealing her in a body-suspension seal which she threw into her inventory, then began wandering around, sighing at the utter destruction she'd wrought. The area used to look quite nice, but now it was completely desolate, her Jutsu having absolutely annihilated all the foliage in the area. She spotted her team all poking around, wandering over with her hands stuffed into her pockets.

They still had a job to do after all.

* * *

Akari would freely admit it, she was so...bored.

Right now, Nezu and the enemy commander were engaged in a rather riveting game of Manoeuvre Warfare, each attempting to get a leg-up on their enemy, using Akari and the other Nin like tools in order to get the job done. But the problem was that, as such a powerful weapon, Akari had to be used strategically. Using her like a wrecking ball worked, sure, but that meant the enemy would likely attempt to avoid them entirely, slipping into Konoha's borders in ones and two's, then regrouping to wreak havoc.

This led to her current situation, sat in the camp twiddling her thumbs and doing jack-shit while Nezu and his opponent fought a war of tactics and planning. She knew her Genin were taking the respite to rest, to unwind, to generally relax, but...she didn't have any projects to work on out here. There was the Kunoichi she captured on a whim, but she honestly didn't know what to do about her aside from just send her to Konoha to be interrogated then probably killed.

She didn't save her out of a misplaced sense of empathy or whatever, she did it because she had a whim to do so. But after the whim, she was left just a little lost on what to actually do with her. It wasn't like the girl would be amicable to talking with her since she incinerated her Jonin-sensei, possibly even her team. Sighing, Akair took the scroll out of her inventory, tossing it from side to side. "Kurama, any ideas?"

The fox blinked one eye open to peer at the scroll, then shut it again. **"Perhaps you could get her to fight your team for her freedom?"** Humming, Akari considered it. This would probably help her team to learn that sometimes certain actions simply had to be undertaken. Plus it'd tell her how strong the girl actually was, since she managed to deflect a Senbon thrown by her. Nodding to herself, she poofed the girl into existence, then frowned.

The girl was still asleep, duh.

* * *

Hidden behind the shroud of Chakra from the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, Akari watched the young Genin wake up and blearily look around.

She kept silent on top of the tree she'd left the girl leaning against, letting her rise then peer into the forest in every direction, reaching for a Kunai which she was surprised to find still there. She saw the exact moment the Genin realized someone was coming, easily hearing her team talking as they approached the area. Looking over at another tree, Akari knew there was a clone waiting there, even if she couldn't see her.

If anything went wrong, well, it wasn't like she was helpless to keep things in check. It might have been a bit heartless to so carelessly use a Genin like a training dummy, but she needed to make absolutely sure her team were ready to encounter enemy Genin. Besides, if the girl did well, maybe Akari would...send her with a note or something so she was less likely to be killed after being stripped for information.

Then again, considering she tried to attack Akari despite how obvious the gap in abilities were, she was probably not going to be broken from her mindset. The girl slipped up against a tree, her head tipped to listen carefully as her team chatted about nothing in particular. Then, as they got close enough, she attacked, catching the three by surprise and scoring a laceration down Tachiko's arm.

Her Genin reacted well to the surprise attack, Tachiko falling back while Aiko and Hikaru moved forwards, each holding Kunai. Their faces were...well, they were confused, but it was mostly over-ridden by the anger evident in their expressions. Tachiko wasn't heavily wounded, but it was the fact she was wounded at all that set them both off. While those three clashed, Tachiko was putting the basic first-aid knowledge Akari had hammered into their heads to good effect, wrapping the laceration up tightly after placing gauze over it, yanking the bandage tightly around her arm to stymie the wound.

She refocused on the three Genin just in time to watch then corral the Kumo-Genin to a point where she was cornered, a rock blocking her rear. Of course, to a Jonin or even a Chunin, simply jumping backwards would see them clear it, but the Kumo-nin was, while skilled, evidently not to that level. Even if she could do it, she was too panicked from the sudden brutal assault the two angered Genin hammered her with.

She saw the exact moment the girl realized she'd really fucked up as Aiko ducked under a swing then slammed his Kunai home into her ribs, retracting the blade towards himself, tearing a massive wound in her side. As she tried to then stab downwards into him, her arm was stabbed by Hikaru's Kunai, pinning it against the stone with the force of his strike. Tachiko then came closer, one arm bandaged but her other arm still just fine, wielding a Kunai of her own.

Akari didn't really care for what the Genin was saying, probably some kind of taunt, what she did care about was that her Genin were being really stupid. The girl still had one Kunai in range she could use, the one now stabbed in her arm. As Tachiko stepped forwards to deliver the killing blow, the Kumo-nin whipped her free arm around, snatching the Kunai in her other arm, tearing it out with a scream muted by her gritted teeth, then attempted to slash Tachiko's throat out.

Attempted being the keyword there, as Akari dropped down to stop her arm by snatching it about a foot from Tachiko's throat. She sighed, snapping the Genin's neck to put her out of her agony then looking at each of her shocked Genin. "Never. Ever. Approach a wounded animal who still has teeth. If I wasn't here, Tachiko would be on the floor with her throat carved out, while you two would be down a teammate." She dropped the body of the Genin to the floor, closing her eyes.

"Sensei, we-" Akari cut Aiko off with a hand, kneeling down and activating Megami no Te, quickly digging a grave for the Genin then covering her body back up, then righting herself and shoving her hands into her pockets, looking over each Genin with a frown.

"You three should know better than to let your anger get the better of you. At several points during that fight, if she was a more skilled opponent, you would have left yourselves wide open thanks to your anger. Yes, your teammate was injured, you have every right to be angry, but don't ever let that influence your fighting style. Besides, you all know first-aid, you should have known it to only be a flesh-wound. If she was poisoned, you each carry general antidotes, plus I'm only a knife-throw away." Each of her Genin were carrying a Hiraishin-tagged Kunai after all, though none of them used it during the fight, probably too blinded by their anger, or in Tachiko's face, pain and revenge.

Sitting down with a sigh, Akari began to go over everything they did wrong. To be nice, she also pointed out the things they did right, like how they moved to protect Tachiko, the wounded member of the team, without hesitation. She did admit that she set this whole thing up so she could see how they reacted, and the way they went for the kill on the Kumo-Genin told her that so long as they had a reason to, they would be able to kill enemy Genin. They would probably not be very happy afterwards, but they'd do what the had to go make sure they could all come home alive.

And as long as they lived, Akari was happy.

* * *

"Eh?"

Nezu leaned forwards, resting his chin on his knuckles as he stared at her. "You're needed on the Iwa border with Kusagakure, the Yonbi Jinchuriki is making a move of his own. The Nibi Jinchuriki has been reported returning towards Kumogakure itself, so we have no pressing need for you here." Groaning, Akari gave her agreement, though she brought up a question.

"So, do I leave my team here or what?" The man waved an arm at her, muttering that she could decide, already focusing on his maps again. With a sloppy salute, Akari dipped her head out of the tent. It wasn't like it was too difficult for her to just slap down a Hiraishin seal somewhere in the area, that way if needed she could return to blunt the attack of Kumo's Jinchuriki if she returned, but it wasn't fun having to bounce across the Elemental Nations, even if she was uniquely equipped to do so.

She wandered over to where she and her team were staying, dipping her head into the tent. "Kits, got some news. We're re-deploying over to Kusagakure, since apparently the Yonbi Jinchuriki has been getting funny ideas while me and Kurama have been over here playing football with Kumo's head." Her words slightly confused the Genin, but they certainly recognized the fact they were being redeployed less than a week after arriving at the border. "So, you three are gonna stay here while I travel over to Kusa, then I'll just plant a Hiraishin tag, come back, grab one of ya, go back, etcetera etcetera until we're all over there. Any questions?"

Aiko raised a hand. "Before you ask, no, we aren't going to just walk. I don't care if the Hiraishin makes you nauseous, this is war, you'll just have to suck it up." His hand went down while Tachiko's raised. "We also aren't going back to Konoha yet. I know war isn't exactly something you three thought you'd fight in so soon after the last one ended, but that's life, you just have to grit your teeth and deal with it boos, sorry." Tachiko lowered her hand as well.

Frowning, Akari sat down, folding her legs over. "Look, you three. You all know by now I got my own moniker from the last war. I fought, bled, whatever, but I came home. That's what's king here, home. If we all decided we don't want to fight any more, we lose. Home becomes a memory as our lives become forfeit. Now, maybe someday peace becomes real, becomes stable. But, with the way our world is right now, peace is always going to be nebulous, something to give a respite from conflict for new weapons to be made, more soldiers to be trained, more espionage to be performed. So, while I know each of you aren't comfortable having to fight in these brutal battles, you all know why we have to do it, yeah?"

Her Genin each gave their agreements, unhappy as they were. They each still didn't look very happy with the situation, but it was war, nobody was happy with their lot, aside from maybe arms dealers. Akari knew her own start to warfare in this world was not normal, considering she'd already been living in an urban warzone for years before her death and rebirth, so she could understand that while she leapt into the fray, her Genin might not have been quite so amicable to it. But they still had to do it, they became Shinobi to fight after all. Sighing, Akari began looking through her inventory, knowing her Genin couldn't see it. "So, who wants what to eat tonight?"

Food always brought morale up.

* * *

**I really suck at taking breaks.**

**This time, I mean it! I'm not going to let myself write anything until 5PM on Friday!**

**...I already started Chapter 48...dammit.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 124**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 9938****/****124,000**

**To Next Level: 114,062**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 32,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 6400/m - 106.6*/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 80**

**Vitality - 80**

**Endurance - 80**

**Intelligence - 90**

**Agility - 300**

**Wisdom - 90**

**Luck - 80**

_**20 Skill Points Available**_


	48. Chapter 48

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**Hope you enjoy!**

_**Chapter 48**_

* * *

"Are you being fucking serious right now?"

Akari gave a deadpan look at the man who'd just insulted her. From his Hitai-ate, he was clearly a Kusa-nin, so sure, he could be forgiven for maybe not having a clue about who she was. But then again, he called her a demon-bitch, so he probably did know who she was. "You heard me right, we don't need you or your demon-fox, we're doing just fine here on our own."

Looking around the camp she'd arrived at, Akari smirked. "Yeah, because missing limbs, rampant infections and down-trodden looks really scream 'We're winning!' at me. Look, you got a problem with me and Kurama, cool, fuck off somewhere else in the camp and let me deal with whatever I need to. You don't have enough Iryo-nin by the look of it. Plus, you have what, a hundred and fifty nin here, with half of them wounded in some fashion. To top that off, fairly sure you ain't the commander around here, now are you?" Refusing to be looked down on, though kinda hard since she was shorter than the opposing man, Akari folded her arms, her point made.

If he still wanted to argue, she had a boot-heel with his name on it, just raring to be kicked.

* * *

Ignoring that absolutely pleasant interaction, most of the Kusa-nin were...apathetic to her presence.

They really didn't give a damn too much, they were just pissed off that they were being invaded once again. Granted, they didn't exactly have the best location, nearly perfect in their positioning between Konoha and Iwa to force the two superpowers into invading them if they wanted to battle. It wasn't quite a proxy war, since Iwa and Konhoa were directly fighting, they were just doing it on lands that neither side owned.

The problem for Kusagakure was that to go south would go through Amegakure, something that was frowned upon thanks to the torrential downpour, as well as the rumors of a so-called 'God's Angel' who wielded paper of all things to attack her foes, which included Konoha-nin. That made Amegakure a far less appealing direction to fight through.

But, to the north was arguably worse. Takigakure was home to Chomei, the seven-tails. With Killer B dead and Gyuki in her inventory, Fu, the Jinchuriki for Chomei, was now the strongest Jinchuriki around, not including Akari herself of course. Now, Akari was pretty much entirely confident in her ability to defeat her, sure, but regular Konoha-nin wouldn't stand a chance.

To finish the picture, Kusagakure was named for its abundant grasslands, perfect for logistics and supply-trains. This also made their lands the perfect battle-ground for Konoha and Iwa-nin. Since Konoha were already allied with them, that meant that in the eyes of the minor villages around, Iwa attacking them wasn't a general attack against minor villages, meaning Iwa didn't get dogpiled.

The minor villages didn't like them attacking Kusa, but with Konoha supporting them, they each were retaining their idea of 'attack us, and we all attack you'. To be fair, it made sense they wouldn't want to incite the anger of any of the large villages. Even in their moderately weakened state, Suna could still crush a minor village in a mere week, Takigakure being the only exception.

Clicking her fingers, Akari stood up from her knelt-down position, brushing dirt over the Hiraishin-tagged rock she had planted. She'd planted her Hiraishin onto a rock because it was far more resistant to being worn-down than a paper tag. Even vellum wasn't as durable, which meant that since she wanted these tags to remain to act as a rudimentary fast-travel system, she needed a material she wouldn't ever have to replace. Her own fast-travel system was nice, but she couldn't transport people using it, making the Hiraishin superior in that sense.

With a little focus, Akari picked out the Hiraishin marker currently in Yu no Kuni, appearing there in a flash of crimson to an empty clearing. Wandering towards where she knew the camp was, Akari spotted her team after a few moments, waving them over when Hikaru noticed her. "Time to go then kits." Spawning three Shadow Clones, each took hold of one of the Genin. Then, as quickly as she'd arrived, she disappeared, each of them appearing now in the middle of Kusagakure. "Wow, remind me to never use that thing twice in as many minutes." Akari took a few deep breaths, settling herself.

Her head spun a little from using the Hiraishin twice in a row. Despite the fact that she could use it once without feeling nausea, twice in less than a minute or two for some reason just threw her for a loop. How Minato could use it to zip around the battlefield she didn't know. "Sensei, how long do you think we'll be out here?" Raising her arms above her head, Akari stretched out, yawning.

"I have no idea. It just depends on whether Iwa's Jinchuriki tries to attack. Considering my stunt capturing Gyuki and Kokuo, I don't think Iwa ever want him to come into conflict with me, that's why Yugito never actually attacked us, Kumo didn't want to lose their second Jinchuriki. Kiri only had one to start with, who is also their Kage, so my chance of running into him is incredibly low." Humming to herself, Akari dug a hand into her inventory under the guise of unsealing something, pulling out the stuff for two tents, one for her and Tachiko, one for Aiko and Hikaru.

Tossing the two bundles side by side, Akari made a Shadow Clone, much to Aiko and Hikaru's dismay. "Oy, you two were the ones who decided you wanted your own separate tent, so deal with it. Besides, Tachiko here knows how to set a tent up already." She left the Shadow Clone to assemble the tent, heading deeper into the camp to pick up their actual orders.

Her Shadow Clones still didn't do anything if she wasn't going to do it with them, not unless she had something else she had to deal with like right now, or if she was in the middle of combat obviously. She could use them for menial work, just so long as she had a good excuse for not doing it alongside them. Pushing open the flap to the command tent, Akari took the situation in with a lazy sweep.

There were a few nin bustling around, as well as a Hyuuga sat facing a wall, evidently keeping tabs on the enemy forces using his Byakugan, the veins were a dead giveaway. Stepping up to the desk of the commander, Akari waited for him to finish the plan he was currently inscribing, finally looking up just after he finished drawing the flanking manoeuvre. "Ahh, Uchiha, you're here already?"

Rolling her eyes, Akari huffed. "Well duh, there's a reason they've started calling me the Crimson Flash. Fucking on the nose though." She mumbled, getting a small chuckle from the man, Shigaraki is the nameplate on his desk was to be believed. "So, what exactly am I gonna be doing, hopefully not one-woman-armying this whole damn section like my last deployment?"

The man's eyebrows rose, shaking his head as he began flipping through folders, eventually pulling one out while he spoke. "Oh no no no, we're going to be using you as, well, a spearhead. Iwa have gotten their teeth dug right in here, using old battlelines established during the previous wars to pick the optimal position to deploy. As such, we require a sledgehammer to smash their defences into disarray." He gestured a hand at her. "That's where you come in."

"So what, I pump out a hundred or so Shadow Clones, then go crash into their front lines while you guys slip around the flanks?" She didn't look down at the plan the man had pulled out, putting her own spin on things. Shigaraki nodded, pressing the paper forwards slightly to make her look at it.

She finally did so, but only after another moment of eye contact. "Not exactly..." Akari's eyes widened. This plan called for her to use fifty or so Shadow Clones, then use the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu on a Kunai inscribed with the Hiraishin much like Minato did, the idea being that seeing a field littered with Hiraishin markers would actually send some of the Iwa-Jonin, many of whom were veterans of the Third War, into PTSD-induced flashbacks of Minato shredding their lines.

It would possibly galvanize some into a fury, but it was more likely to instil heavy morale damage against the enemy forces. Added to that Akari's presence with several dozen Shadow Clones, and the Iwa-nin would be shaken before they ever made contact. Then, even if Shigaraki didn't know it, she could add her new Title into the mix, making half the Iwa-Genin flee, as well as a good portion of Chunin, fewer still for Jonin. "Uhh, I just want to warn you, I can't use the Hiraishin consecutively, two uses makes me nauseous. I'm guessing it was a hidden Kekkei Genkai similar to the Jinton allowing Minato to move at-" She trailed off as she saw Shigaraki's deadpan look.

Lowering her gaze, Akari mumbled. "...Sorry."

* * *

Planting her chin on one hand, Akari resisted the urge to groan as she waited for her Chakra to come back.

After spending a few days warding off Iwa-nin attacks, she'd finally gotten herself a proper mission, one which involved...exactly what she was doing now, sitting in a tree pumping out Shadow Clones. Her team couldn't use the Jutsu, so they were back at the base.

Right now, the simple part of the plan was that she was going to remain sat right here, continually producing Shadow Clones, recovering her Chakra, then producing even more, since she'd been given lee-way on how many she produced, as long as she could do the job. Since she didn't reveal that she could refill her Chakra Coils in a measly four minutes, it was probably expected that she'd have at most a hundred and fifty Shadow Clones. She had many times that number already, and it just kept increasing.

The original plan that Shigaraki showed her was good, the only problem was that it relied on Iwa actually meeting them in a pitched battle. Apparently, word of her exploits in almost single-handedly holding Kumo back several times had reached Iwa, making them wary of attempting a proper attack. As such, a revision of the plan was made, again using her.

However, unlike the original plan, this one called for a direct assault on the main Iwa encampment. When the majority of the enemy forces were confirmed to have left the base on missions, that was when she was to strike. The main aim? Destruction. She was to level as much of the base as possible, burn supplies, tents, everything she could get her hands on.

This would seriously hamper Iwa's ability to defend themselves, leaving their throats wide-open to a quick second strike from Konoha, annihilating their center and giving them a straight shot onto Iwa's lands. Kumo would be far harder to pull this off with, as they had both Yu no Kuni and Shimo no Kuni between their border and Konoha. But there was only a narrow strip of Kusa no Kuni between Iwa and Konoha.

They would have a long, arduous fight ahead of them to reach Iwagakure and force a surrender, but hopefully they wouldn't suffer too much in the process.

**Quest Received!**

**Hammered Dirt.**

**Objectives:**

**Destroy Iwagakure's main encampment.**

**Reward: 150,000 Experience**

**Hidden Objective:**

**?**

* * *

The first warning Iwa had that something was wrong was a streak of flame in the night, crashing into a hastily-erected wall of dirt with an explosion of flame.

It came from the dense grass which was a staple of Kusa no Kuni, the clone which fired it completely concealed by greenery. Of course, that didn't stop a large repercussion strike of several Doton Jutsu's tearing the area up, forcing the clone to retreat or be crushed. As they counter-attacked that one clone, a second one popped up further to the side, firing her own Gokakyu no Jutsu, the strike again being blocked by a wall of earth.

This time the strike was more vicious, a large pair of walls snapping up like jaws from either side, crushing the singular clone before she could escape. As the Iwa-nin cheered at this strike, three more fireballs were hurled, one of which managed to slip past the defences and impact within the camp itself, lighting fires and beginning the process, even as Iwa-nin rushed to extinguish the fire and find the enemy.

With a loud whistle, half of Akari's clones stood up, each one finishing their hand seals at the same time and spitting out fireballs larger than the clones themselves. She had made enough clones to completely surround the Iwa-nin encampment several times over. As the fireballs flew through the air, many dirt walls slammed up in an attempt to stop the onslaught of flame, retaliatory strikes rending huge portions of the surrounding grasslands to barren.

Deciding to add her own spin on things, Akari borrowed a little Chakra from Kurama, flexing her arms as she pulled it through her coils, turning it crimson with her bizarre lightning nature, then merging it with her own Chakra, spinning it around in her body several times, all the while picturing a sphere she could throw. She poured more and more of her own Chakra into the Bijuu-fueled ball, expelling it from the Tenketsu in her hand, a thin sheet of Chakra containing what was practically an explosion of lightning.

**Rakurai Bakudan no Jutsu (Lightning Strike Bomb) - An original Jutsu. This Jutsu compresses Lightning Chakra alongside Lightning-natured Bijuu Chakra, then expels it as a throwable orb, which will shatter upon impact. Variable cost Jutsu.**

Tossing the little ball of death from one hand to the other, Akari tossed it upwards towards a clone, who snatched it and glared at her, as if asking why it had to choose her. "You were closest." Was her deadpan response as she shrugged, watching the clone growl at her before sprinting towards the Iwa encampment. To their credit, the sensors i nthe mix had picked up on the dangerous attack, re-directing as many iwa-nin as could be corralled into attacking the oncoming clone.

Her clone's response? Go faster. She activated Sharingan, kicking off at near-top speed to hurtle right up to the now-solid wall of earth surrounding the camp. With a middle finger aimed at Akari herself, she hurled the ball at the floor, being immediately engulfed. Wincing a little at the momentary flash of pain the clone experienced, Akari had to cover her eyes as the area was bathed in bright light, her Jutsu exploding with the force of, well, about ten-thousand points of Chakra.

Stray strands of Lightning from the attack had seared mile-long scores through the grass, several of her clones being flash-fried from random chance. The camp was definitely looking a hell of a lot worse though. The dirt wall had exploded, all the Iwa-nin inside a twenty-meter radius had been cooed from the inside-out, bursting in violent showers of blood as they boiled alive in an instant, their bodies being bloated with steam then detonating. Even those who survived weren't unscathed, many had been hit by the lightning strikes and suffered livid Lichtenberg marks across their flesh.

Nonchalantly waving her arm, Akari sent her clones forwards, each one equipped with a pair of Kunai as they swarmed the camp, a frown on her lips. This wasn't fun. Stomping over her enemies by using a thousand Shadow Clones or by pulling Minato, Hashirama and Tobirama out for every fight was not what she ever wanted to do. She wanted to have fun in this life, not just steamroll everything in existence.

Akari watched as her clones butchered their way through the shattered Iwa-nin lines, several fleeing in terror when they realized who was fighting. She'd equipped her Crimson Flash title for this battle, but since they didn't know it was her they were fighting, the chance to flee effect hadn't proceed, not until her clones got close enough to identify.

Approaching the camp, Akari walked up the side of the earth-wall barricade they'd erected, tempered using her flames, then sat down on top of the wall peering into the camp as her clones worked their way through killing everything they got their hands on. At the very least this would give her a dump-truck worth of experience. She didn't know what her hidden objective was though, so she tried a few things like using one of each Jutsu, firing them at random into the camp. She also made sure to get a few kills herself, her knives seeing play as she swept past a few Nin who tried to surrender, leaving them with their throats slit. When she saw the notification for a completely quest pop up and read through it, she knew everyone in the camp had been defeated.

**Quest Received!**

**Hammered Dirt.**

**Objectives:**

**Destroy Iwagakure's main encampment.**

**Reward: 150,000 Experience**

**Hidden Objective:**

**Kill every Nin in the camp without aid from other Nin - Completed.**

**Reward - +5 to All Stats, 100,000 experience.**

**Experienced Gained from Kills: 2,373,950**

"Son of a bitch, I just got my stats neatened up as well..."

* * *

Returning to the camp, Akari was met with...fear.

Apparently, the Hyuuga who were around had been relaying the entire battle not just to Shigaraki, but also to the other nin in the camp. As such, they each knew exactly what she'd achieved, killing hundreds of enemy nin whilst barely lifting a finger herself, letting her Shadow Clones do the work for her. Maybe this would cement her status in their eyes as some kind of demon, at least for the nin who had no positive to level things out.

The Konoha nin mostly knew her because of her work on the Golan-seals, as well as the fact she single-handedly saved the village from extreme devastation by using Megami no Mon, but the Kusa-nin certainly didn't have reason to see her as anything different from what other Jinchuriki were regarded as, thinly-disguised demons living amongst them, dogs for their villages to send out on attacks.

Akari re-equipped her Sannin-slayer title, just in case it somehow procked an encounter while she was here, ignoring the staring masses as she picked her team out of the mix of nin going to and fro. They'd apparently been repurposed for menial labor, hauling things across the camp. Right now Aiko and Tachiko were wrestling over who was going to carry what, while Hikaru was just getting on and carrying things.

Dropping in, Akari planted her hands on her two wayward Genin's heads, making them freeze up in surprise. "S-sensei? Y-you're back early!" AIko tried to worm out of the fact he'd just been about to snatch a bag of...whatever that stuff was and dump it on Tachiko.

Swatting his head, she let go of them both. "I know you two are only like 14 or whatever, but, well, where's your teammate?" When they looked around in surprise for the absent Hikaru, she sighed. "He's getting on and working, while you two were too busy arguing to do the same. How about this, split it all into thirds." Denoting portions of the pile they'd been tasked to move, Akari pointed at one section. "This is Hikaru's. Then this-" She pointed at the middle one. "-is Tachiko's, and that one is Aiko's. Before you say anything, yes, Hikaru's has more things. However, his are much lighter to move. Enjoy."

Leaving her team to the work they'd been assigned, Akari quickly checked the time. Still a long time to go before she had to really do anything, so she slipped across the camp towards the medical area, removing her forearm guards into her inventory then quickly cleaning herself off as well as she was able to. Passing through the flap into the largest tent, she scanned up and down the beds that had been set up for injured nin, counting wounds, judging the level of treatment, generally getting a feel for the medical situation.

She spotted the Iryo-nin in charge of the tent, quickly walking over though made sure she stepped loudly enough to announce her presence, something she actively had to do now thanks to her Agility making her move quieter by default. "Hey, you guys need any help here?" Despite her loud footsteps, she still somehow managed to surprise the Iryo-nin, making them almost drop their clipboard as they spun around. "Woah there!" She quickly snatched the board before the paper could get dirty touching the ground, passing it back with a grin. "Sorry about that."

The Iryo-nin nudged his glasses, taking the clipboard from her carefully. "I-it's fine. Are you a certified medic then?" Shrugging, Akari tried to remember ever actually getting an Iryo-nin certification. She'd had a pretty unorthodox introduction to actually being an Iryo-nin, basically leaping straight into the midst of things in the middle of the Third Shinobi War, so when actually thinking about it, she never actually got any kind of official certification.

"Well, not officially, no." As he opened his mouth to rebut her, she continued on. "Though considering people call me the Crimson Medic, maybe they got the wrong idea, thinking I heal people by making them bleed or something." She nonchalantly shrugged again, watching the young Iryo-nin argue with himself for a moment as he tried to get his bearings again, his mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish.

He probably had an idea that she was just a regular combat-nin looking for something to do like menial work, dumping waste or something. She'd tried to clean herself up, but her vest still had some scuffs and burnt patches from being too close to Katon Jutsu that were being launched. "Y-you're the Crimson Medic?!"

"Well, I know they call me other stuff now like Sannin-slayer, Crimson Flash, but yeah, I'm also the Crimson Medic. Guess you've heard of...me? Hang on a sec, those glasses...are you by chance a friend of Nono Yakushi's? She wears the exact same glasses." The boy nudged his glasses again, probably a nervous tic.

"S-she's my mother...adoptive mother, that is. How do you know her?" Waving an arm around, Akari found her gaze attracted to one wounded nin, his arm was festering a little. "Oh, that? Apparently an Iwa-nin was using some kind of venom extracted from a rare Chakra Beast, one whose venom the Poison Extraction Jutsu doesn't work on. It doesn't seem to spread too quickly though."

Rolling her neck, she stared at the boy. "Did you think about extracting the venom manually, or simply debriding the area? Just because it resists a Jutsu doesn't mean extracting it can't be done more manually." As she spoke, she approached the wounded man, kneeling down and wreathing her hands in Chakra Scalpels, a Jutsu she hadn't used since she was eleven, maybe twelve.

She then face-faulted, cutting the flow to one hand before withdrawing a needle from her inventory, leaning back to look at Nono's adopted son. "Hey, do you know if this guy has any allergies to this anaesthetic, or if the venom will have a negative reaction?" He shook his head in the negative. "Good." She immediately jabbed the syringe into his body, pushing the anaesthetic into his body then retracting it, pressing a little gauze against the hole her needle made even as she dumped the now-empty syringe into her inventory.

With a shallow sigh, Akari got to work, quickly slicing away all of the festering flesh, then debriding a little further to ensure any still-afflicted flesh was also removed, all while the boy, Kabuto he revealed during her impromptu operation, watched on, even taking notes at one point as she worked. Slicing one final portion of flesh from his arm, Akari dumped it into the repurposed dispensary she'd dragged beneath her, using a brief Suiton Jutsu to create a few bullets worth of water from which to wash off her hands of blood.

"Right, now all that's left is to, well..." She then cast the Mystical Palm Jutsu, healing as much of his arm as she could, eventually managing to grow back all the way to his wrist, stopping just before his scaphoid and lunate bones in the wrist. She couldn't rebuild his hand, her Game classed it as a crippled state after all. If she had a hand to graft into place, much like she had with her own hand after losing it, then maybe, but as it was, all she could do was make his life as easy as possible. He'd lost his left hand, which if he was right-handed meant he could possibly keep being a Shinobi, but it was more likely this was the end of his career.

Standing up, Akari pressed her hands up, cracking her back in several places and yawning. "So, whose next?" She turned to face Kabuto, only to see his eyes practically twinkling as he scribbled in his notebook. "Uhh, Yakushi-san?" She inquired, actually using the correct...ish honorifics and way to address someone, only to be ignored, or perhaps simply unheard, by the very distracted Iryo-nin. Shrugging, Akari moved onto the next bed, wincing at the sight of the Kusa-nin's wounds.

"Yeesh, even for me that's a nasty one."

* * *

**I have a really bad habit of not listening to my own instructions.**

**It's 19:17pm on Friday as of writing this. As in, it's already done just over two hours after I said I would start writing again. oh well, means I've got all day tomorrow to relax...who am I kidding, I just can't seem to stop myself.**

**Oh well, hope you enjoyed. Akari explained a few reasons of her own as to why she doesn't just wipe the world out using Shadow Clones, because it's a Game! She wants to have fun, not just curbstomp everything. Granted, she's plenty strong enough to do so, but she only uses her proper strength if she has to, otherwise she just relies on physical abilities, she prefers them.**

**She got that experience thanks to the fact there were lots of Jonin and Chunin, and fewer Genin. Since it all actively counts as her kills, she didn't get it halved either. Don't forget, she just wiped out one of Iwagakure's main encampments. ****Gives you a picture of how strong she is if she puts the effort in, huh?**

**Now, I'm pretty sure I made a small error calculating her experience. I know though that I'm probably only a few thousand off at most, so...I really can't be bothered to fix it. That's me being entirely honest. if you want to take the time to work out exactly what it should be, be my guest, I'd be happy to know how much I'm off-target!**

**Take care boos!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 143**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 106,888****/****143,000**

**To Next Level: 36,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 36,625 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 7225/m - 120.41/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.**

**Chakra Points: 45,625 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5**

**Regeneration Rate - 9025/m - 150.41/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.**

**Strength - 85**

**Vitality - 85**

**Endurance - 85**

**Intelligence - 95**

**Agility - 305**

**Wisdom - 95**

**Luck - 85**

_**165 Skill Points Available**_


	49. Chapter 49

**I think that with this Chapter, Akari has now dropped out of the realm of Kage-level strength and into a whole new level above even Hashirama.**

**Sure, she's got no fancy Sage-mode or anything like that, but she has power in spades. You'll see what I mean in the opening chapter, where Akari finally uses those 165 points she's got sitting there being useless.**

_**Chapter 49**_

* * *

After finishing up her help at the medical tent, Akari found a quiet corner to sit down at.

She hadn't gotten any experience for her work, that was a bit of a shame, but she decided that now was a pretty good time to put some of her points to work, considering she had like a hundred and sixty of the damn things. Opening up her status screen, Akari gnawed at her lip a little debating, before finally giving up and raising all her stats to a rounded-off 100, leaving her with 95 points to spare.

She saw her notifications flash, but ignored it as she tried to debate on whether or not to bite the bullet and jump her agility all the way up to 400, before finally shrugging and doing so. As she did so, the side of her vision flashed once again, finally forcing her attention to the three new notifications she'd received. Two of them had purple outlines, different from the norm, while the third was the typical colouration. She opened the first, her eyes widening.

**For reaching 100 in Vitality, Endurance, Intelligence and Wisdom, your Quantity of Health and Chakra calculations have been returned to pre-patch levels. To adjust, your regeneration rate calculations have been amended, owing to your larger pools. Finally, the limitation of regeneration only occurring when Chakra is not in use has been removed.**

Akari blinked once. Twice. then she smashed a hand against the floor, gritting her teeth in anger. If she knew that was going to be a fucking thing she would have done that ages ago instead of levelling her Agility! Groaning, she belatedly closed that notification, happy to have received it but irritated that it would have solved her problems. As she opened up the second one all thoughts of her anger were wiped away.

**For reaching a whopping 400 points in Agility, the special perk Speedster has been granted.**

**Speedster - Hours upon hours of running have made you adept at, well, running! Run twice as fast, instinctive speed control adjusted to compensate for increased speed.**

"Wait, so...if I hit certain levels with my stats I'll get special rewards? Because if so, I'm going straight for Intelligence and Wisdom after this." Nobody responded, but Akari knew that if she earned a reward for 400 from Agility, a stat that didn't tie into any of the numbers, then Strength and Luck probably had the same rewards, while her Vit, End, Int and Luck each had just as good a chance as giving a reward as they did not giving a reward.

Deciding to give her new speed a try, Akari slipped out of the camp silently, her Agility keeping her footsteps nigh-silent while visually she was invisible, the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu enshrouding her body. As she made it to the treeline, she flicked a coin into the air then loosened her control over her speed, just enough so she was moving at a quarter of her top speed.

She then ran as swiftly as she could all the way around the camp, staying within the treeline, reaching the same point which she'd left, only to find that the coin was still travelling upwards. She had done a full traversal of the perimeter in the time it took the coin to travel upwards a few more centimetres. Whistling, she mentally closed off her speed again, the coin speeding up until it fell naturally into her palm.

This was pretty huge. Tossing the coin back into her inventory, she opened the third notification, grinning. It was pretty simple, informing her that she was now functionally immune to a large list of poisons she'd previously ingested. To gain full immunity to a poison, she simply had to ingest it the same number of times as it had danger rating, and she'd become immune. If the poison had a danger rating of 100, then taking that poison 100 times would make her fully immune.

A danger rating 17 was the highest she'd ever seen, and it was a nasty piece of work by some Suna-nin, dealing by standard 1350 points of HP damage every second for a full minute, though it had no bonus effects like enervation or nausea. She would have an 83% resistance, meaning it would deal about 230 damage per second to her, for a total of almost 14,000 damage. With her old Vitality, that would have been a pretty major issue, but now?

Nowadays, the health she'd lose ingesting that poison wasn't even 15% of her healthbar.

* * *

**Quest Received!**

**Endless Eyes.**

**Objective:**

**Recover your team without casualties.**

**Reward: 500,000 Experience**

**Hidden Objectives:**

**?**

"I really should have expected this..."

Akari was, of course, referring to the fact that her team seemed to have mysteriously vanished, with this quest appearing as she entered the disarrayed camp. She'd gone on a hunter-killer mission, taking out groups of Iwa-nin who had split off from the main encampment and were now in disarray when the camp destroyed, but when she came back, Konoha's camp had been attacked by...'weird white things', who killed at least half the Konoha-nin for as many losses of their own if not more.

But more importantly, they'd decided to steal Akari's team for some reason, possibly as revenge for her killing all those Iwa-nin. She'd never heard of a Jutsu that made white clones, but the Kage Bunshin was evidence that near-anything was possible give enough effort and Chakra was poured into it. Maybe it was just a way for them to..."Hang on, were any of them Black and White, or were they all just white?"

Shigaraki shook his head. "They were all white, with yellow eyes, grey hair and lines on their faces. But they were each identical, so we believe it's a clone technique, possibly a way to get back at your use of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to wipe out Iwa's camp." Humming, Akari recalled the weird thing which accompanied Obito, since it had a white half which sounded very similar to these white clones.

Maybe it was able to split into two, since it certainly had two distinct personalities, one helpful whilst the other was antagonistic. It could have also been entirely unrelated, but she doubted it, since it also fit with the idea of revenge, alongside trying to recapture her so they could get at Kurama for...some reason. Since Naruto was now certainly inaccessible, they go after the next vulnerable target that Akari would care about, her team.

But, unlike with Naruto, this time...she had the Hiraishin on each of her team.

* * *

On a hunch, Akari went the room she'd tagged with her Hiraishin.

Immediately she shrouded herself in the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, glancing across the room below her. It was empty, which was good since it meant her arrival probably went undetected. She felt around for her Hiraishin markers, all three of the Genin were somewhere directly above her, so her hunch was correct, it was the same place Obito was in. She dropped down to the floor, looking around once more before walking towards the only doors in the room, pressing her ear to the crack then pulling them open, glancing either direction. There was nobody in the hallway.

Slipping through the gap, she shut the door behind herself then began roaming around, tracking down a set of stairs which led upwards. After a few minutes, she found them, though when she looked down the stairwell, she could see they were either in an extremely deep underground base, or a large building. As she looked up, she saw only a few floors to the top, so if they were underground, reaching the surface would be easy.

Since the Hiraishin markers for her team were upstairs, she obviously went upwards, though made three Shadow Clones who travelled downwards to scout the area out further, then another three who would continue searching the floor she'd appeared on. She didn't like using them too much, but if her team was being kidnapped, you could be goddan sure she would use all her assets to kick the ass of whoever took them. "Hey Kurama, you got any idea how many of them we're dealing with?"

Akari wasn't a very good sensor, she needed to be incredibly familiar with someone's Chakra to pick them out of the myriad of random Chakra sources, so to her, the jumbled mass of Chakra she could sense upstairs was just that, a jumbled mish-mash of signatures, so mixed she had no idea the quantity of enemy forces. Because if they were in here, they were almost certainly enemies.

The fox gave a hum, then made a weird noise of surprise. **"There are about...five different sources of emotions above you, not including your three kits. One of them though...he feels wrong, truly malevolent, not just evil, cruel or negative. I would take care engaging them, I've never felt more repulsive emotions before."** Nodding, Akari kept her head on a swivel as she moved up, bringing two more Shadow Clones forth for support, both of them holding Kunai while her hands remained empty in case she had to use a Jutsu.

They arrived on the top floor, with Akari and Kurama both confirming they were on the same level, then sweeping across, finally coming across a set of double-doors. "You ready?" His response was a growl, as though he'd ever not be ready to support her. With a smirk, she booted the doors open, glaring across the room at a...decrepid old man? Her sudden kick didn't go unnoticed by the other inhabitants of the room, each of them turning to face her.

There was a masked man, a guy without a shirt on for some reason, a blue-haired chick with a rose in her hair, the aforementioned decrepid old man, though after closer inspection it was revealed that he wasn't actually that old-looking, his body was just obscenely frail, and the final member, the weird black and white thing. She immediately used Observe on him, unsurprised when she only observed half of him, immediately looking at the second.

So it was Black Zetsu and White Zetsu, pretty unoriginal. **"Kit, that thing isn't what you should be worried about right now. Look at the red-haired one, he has the Rinnegan."** Blinking, Akari dragged her gaze from Zetsu to look at him, idly noting that his name was Uzumaki Nagato, though he had a sub-text calling him 'Pain' for some reason. **"Those eyes are extremely powerful, he probably doesn't have much less Chakra than you do...without my support of course."**

Smiling despite herself, Akari folded her arms, looking over each member as they stared at her. "Well, isn't this nice? Hope I'm not interrupting, I just wanted to come collect my brats then go home again." She felt air breeze past her as one of her Shadow Clones attacked something, stepping to the side and casting her gaze back to see one of the White Clone things that attacked the camp. "Hmm, wonder how those things work then."

She heard Nagato say something to his partner, his rippling eyes glaring down at her from his weird chair thing. Actually observing his body revealed a bunch of black spikes stuck into his back for some weird reason, while his arms were pinned down for a probably even weirder reason. "The Kyuubi Jinchuriki comes, perhaps to pay her own penance and those of her flock? It doesn't matter, you shall experience pain for interfering with the plan of God." Snorting, Akari tried her hardest not to laugh.

"Yeah, get a load of this guy. Look buddy, I don't give a shit what kinda fancy eyes you've got, you'll die just like any other man. God? The only God-like being I know is on my side, and he'd probably be all for-" Akari snatched the triple-bladed scythe which was thrown at her, levelling a low glare at the idiot who threw it. "-as I was saying, all for me kicking you asses."

The idiot then started charging her, yelling something or another about Jashin and how he was the only true god. Being frank, Akari didn't care, spinning the scythe around in her hand then throwing it backwards. She didn't know how to use a scythe, so she didn't bother. Her proficiency in scythes would probably make her accidentally cut her own arm off or something, so lodging it blade-first into the wall behind her was probably a good start.

Backhanding his fist, she slammed her hand fingers-first into his guts, wrenching upwards in a vicious riposte, then kicked his corpse away. "Well, that guy was an idiot." She flicked her hand off, folding her arms again. "So, about my kits, you guys gonna just give them up, or are you going to be pricks and force me to kill you all before I get them back?"

She was pretty surprised by just how nonchalant the other four inhabitants of the room was, though that quickly became apparent as the man she'd just eviscerated got back up, his stomach sealing up as he glared at her. "You bitch! You'll make a fine fucking sacrifice for Jashin-sama, right after I rip those fucking eyes from your face." As he yelled, Akari was more interested in his healing factor.

The torn flesh was regrowing without any visible aid, no Jutsu was being used that she could see, nor did he look to be focusing on it, almost like it was a by-product of something. Observing the man revealed his name as Hidan. "That's a pretty neat party trick, I wonder how it'd react if I chopped you up like a sardine and threw your body parts all over the Elemental Nations, would you crawl back together slowly, inch by inch, or would you regrow from the largest or most important piece?" She tapped her chin, her eyes watching as the final little slice sealed up, his stomach as good as new.

She smirked as he took a step back, seemingly off-put slightly by her reaction to his healing. "Enough. Konan, if you would?" The Uzumaki in the room spoke softly, the chick next to him giving a nod before waving her arm, paper emerging from her large sleeves and whistling around her in streams. She thrust her hand forwards, sending the paper flying towards Akari.

With a frown on her lips, Akari let a clone slip in front of her, her hands forming seals before slamming her palms against the floor. "Doton: Doryuheki!" A wall coloured just as the floor sprung up, easily stopping the paper from reaching her. As it reformed and flowed around the outsides of the walls, her clone switched tacks, performing several more hand seals before inhaling. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" She exhaled a condensed stream of flames, spraying it across Konan's paper and burning it to ashes. On the other side, her second clone performed the same Jutsu, stopping Konan's attack bluntly. "I think I can do this longer than you can keep pouring out paper."

She then jumped back in surprise as the earth wall shattered, a blue lance of lightning slicing through the clone on the left side. She quickly backtraced the lightning towards the last unidentified member of the group, her Observe identifying him as Kakuzu. Akari tipped back into a flip to avoid a sudden stab by the paper which had slipped through as her clone died, the paper then re-directed to killing her other clone. "Okay then, I guess you lot aren't going to just give me those Genin then. Time to play."

Dropping to a crouch, Akari shut her right eye, Zetsu yelling a warning too late as she re-opened it in her Mangekyo pattern, bringing only a single enemy forwards. "Uchiha Madara." She pointedly did not grant him free will as he appeared, instead immediately giving him orders. "Kill every hostile in this room." The tall Uchiha gave a curt nod, his arms forming hand seals as he leaned back.

"Katon: Goka Mekkyaku!" Then leaned forwards again, spraying out a colossal flame which nearly engulfed the room from wall to wall, pushing those hungry flames forwards as he leaned. She heard a loud hissing noise, evidently, on the other side, someone was using a Suiton Jutsu, a foolish move. The best thing to do would be to erect a Doton wall around yourself, since Fire had a hard time breaching earth, unless it was significantly more powerful. A single Doton: Doryuheki would crumble in the face of the Gokakyu no Jutsu after all.

As Madara finally finished his first Jutsu, settling back in a stance of standing fully upright, he crossed his arms over much like her own. She grinned as she realized that she actually had a few similarities with the extremely powerful Uchiha, even if she didn't agree with his whole idea of deserting the village. As the smoke cleared, it revealed that the only one not standing was the one who had healed lying burned on the floor nearby.

As if reading her mind, there was a massive earthen wall now between her and her enemies, reaching all the wall up to the ceiling and the walls on either side, blunting the flames entirely and protecting everyone else in the room. "Hey Madara!" She attracted her summons attention, tossing him a Nodachi from her inventory which was slick with poison. "Use that. One slash does enough damage to kill practically anyone. I mean, I'd put a bet on mister Uzumaki over there surviving it with his vitality, but that was if he didn't look like he was one step from the grave."

The summoned Uchiha just stared at her for a moment before turning back to the fight, whilst at the same time Akari drew the Kusanagi, passing it from one hand to the other, her 100 Strength making the sword feeling like it weighed barely anything at all, even if her arms looked like they would struggle doing such a thing. With a flash of movement, Madara struck, plowing a fist against the wall which shattered it, revealing that Zetsu had vanished, Konan had a tornado of paper flying around herself, and Kakuzu had three weird masked creatures around himself.

Madara only took a moment to pick a target, rushing towards Kakuzu while Akari followed behind him, watching Nagato raise his hand towards her, having freed it from the weird contraption holding him down. As his lips started moving, she prepared to bolt to the side. "Shinra Tensei." She moved, watching the floor she was just stood on erupt from seemingly nothing at all as she evaded the attack. Narrowing her eyes, she prepared to dodge again, but when he didn't use it, it set her mind ticking as she then dodged a strike of Konan's paper.

She snapped her fingers. "You have a cooldown, don't you?" Hearing her words, Konan grit her teeth, waving her arms in increasingly intricate patterns. To counter her, Akari dumped a thousand Chakra points each into two Shadow Clones, letting them loose to form two more streams of flame with the Gokakyu no Jutsu, burning away Konan's paper again. As the blue-haired woman made to move her arms again, Akari simply pointed the Kusanagi at her, aiming it directly at her heart.

She saw Nagato's eyes widen in recognition of the blade she was holding, his lips moving to try and warn Konan, but too late. She forced enough Chakra into the blade to pierce the paper-wielding woman's heart, retracting itself after a few moments and letting her corpse fall to the ground dead. Even if she was still alive after the attack, the myriad of poisons she'd poured onto the Kusanagi would have finished her off. At the same time, Madara intoned a Jutsu loudly enough to be heard. "Doton: Dosekiryu." The floor around him warped and contorted into an earthen dragon which crashed down on Kakuzu.

She ignored his fight as she focused on Nagato, who was staring at Konan's corpse with...it wasn't sadness, whatever it was. Maybe he was already so broken her death didn't effect him, or maybe he was in shock. She raised the Kusanagi to stab him again, but felt a pinprick in her ankle, followed by a mild burning sensation. Turning to look, she saw Zetsu emerge from the ground. "Don't worry, that poison won't kill you. **We need you for the Bijuu of course. **Just so long as you don't fight it of course!"

Deciding to play along for a moment so she got a chance to actually kill that black-and-white thing this time, she stayed stationary, resisting the urge to smirk as he watched Madara fight. "I wonder how you got Madara to actually work with you. **He's probably being forced by this bitch. **Maybe it doesn't work based on willpower? **If it did, her head would have exploded by now."**

"Oh, you can go fuck yourself for that." She lunged forwards, her right hand snapping shut around Zetsu's throat. The weird hybrid tried to turn around, making a weird chittering noise of panic when it realized that despite her size, Akari had more than enough strength to forcibly hold him in place. She attempted to snap his neck, but it seemed it didn't actually have a spine to break.

Frowning, Akari channelled pure Lightning Chakra into her hand, finally receiving a pained screech as it thrashed like, well, like a trapped animal. She didn't expect Zetsu to start physically morphing, turning into other forms right under her hand. First, it was her mother, then it was Naruto. But the one that made her lose her vision temporarily was...her mother, but her mother from her old world. "You..."

Her eyes turned crimson with the Sharingan as her grip tightened, unconsciously pulling Kurama's Chakra into herself as her dual Lightning and Fire natures clashed together, forming a weird amalgamation of Chakra which spewed out of her hand, covering Zetsu in blood-red and midnight-black flames.

Idly, Akari remembered what merging her two Chakra Natures together along with Kurama's Chakra did, but she was far more interested in keeping her grasp on Zetsu even as the flesh of her hand burned, her fingers staying tightly wrapped around his throat as he screeched, crowed and thrashed in her grasp. At one point, he went limp, playing dead perhaps, but when she raised her other hand, pouring the same malevolent Chakra out of her Shadow Hand as her intent was made clear to burn him into nothingless, he began screeching again.

She saw her two clones approach, both of them guarding her as she burned away...whatever Zetsu was. When he showed her something he should not have ever known, she knew she couldn't let him live, not a second time. As his feet desperately reached for the floor, for any hope of trying to escape, she merely hoisted him higher, until he finally dispersed into ashes, whatever was fuelling his medium-speed regeneration simply unable to outlast Akari's flames. Those same ashes were then burned to atoms, leaving not one trace of the blasted creature that...that did what he did.

Akari swept her gaze over her scorched hand, her new endurance and health pool allowing Akari to ignore the pain she felt from the wounds even as they began weeping blood, then looked over to watch Madara as he plunged the sword she gave him through one of the remaining two masks, the third and fourth each shattered on the floor. Kakuzu was fighting the man viciously, anger clear in his eyes, but he couldn't lay a hand on him. Even if he could, Madara could just ignore it, since her Spectres worked far differently to a Shadow Clone.

Then she turned her eyes towards Nagato, who met her gaze with a cold look of his own. "This...all of this could have been avoided y'know. What was the fucking point?" As she spoke, one of her clones broke off from behind her, a snapping sound being heard as she crushed Hidan's leg, then his arm, which was outstretched towards his scythe as if to grab it. "I would've been happy to just take my three Genin and leave you all alone. Well, I'd probably try to figure out why the hell Obito was here, but whatever."

As she approached Nagato, she watched him raise his palm towards her again, except this time, he spoke different words. "Bansho Tenin." Immediately, a force began drawing her towards Nagato, even when she attached herself to the floor with Chakra. She was confused as to exactly why he wanted to pull her towards him considering she clearly had the advantage physically, but when she saw his hand ready to attempt to touch her, she immediately knew he had some kind of ability similar to Obito's, which required touch to activate. Otherwise, he would never risk getting into close quarters, not unless it was worth the risk.

She didn't miss the flicker of worry on his face as she began channelling Lightning Chakra, but she had her own lapse of worry as he extended his other hand towards her as she released the crimson streaks, her Lightning being absorbed by his hand. As she got closer, Akari smirked, something which caused the Rinnegan-wielding redhead a great deal more worry.

That worry was justified when Akari stuck herself to the ground again, just for a second. She was stationary long enough to point the Kusanagi towards him. "Game over." The blade extended in a flash, piercing straight through his chest. The frail Uzumaki looked down at the blade in his chest in shock, as though he couldn't believe what had happened, before slumping to join his partner, lover, whatever, in death.

Flicking the Kusanagi clean of blood as it retracted, she watched Kakuzu as he looked over at her, stood beside the corpses of Konan, Nagato as well as the ash pile which made up Zetsu, then he...stopped. His sole remaining mask stopped what they were doing entirely. "That's it then?" He spoke in a gruff voice, at the same time as Akari ordered Madara to stop fighting.

"Hey, they were the ones to pick a fight, not me." The man looked between her, Madara, and the prone body of Hidan, just as he got his arm snapped again, then huffed, the material holding the remaining masks up vanishing, leaving him to catch them all and stuff them behind himself. He then began walking towards the doors, Akari not stopping him. "You know, I would normally attack you, but I know when a bounty isn't worth hunting."

He seemed like he didn't care about any of this going on, he probably was only in it for the money thanks to his final comment. Letting him go really didn't matter in Akari's eyes, not like Zetsu or Nagato, they were in too deep. She kinda regretted killing Konan, she seemed like she didn't really want to fight Akari, but hey, they started it, so they had to take the consequences of pissing her off. She sealed up Zetsu's ashes, or rather...it was more like dust, into a scroll, then placed Nagato and Konan into scrolls as well, before finally walking over to Hidan, ignoring his rampant cursing and spouted gibberish about Jashin as she knelt down.

"Alright cocksucker, here's the deal. You're going to tell me where my Genin team are, or I'm going to lock you up in a dark dungeon where machines will continually break each of the most painful bones in your body repeatedly for as long as your regeneration lasts. I wonder how long you'd survive, one hour? Five? A day? Maybe a month? Who knows, aside from you most likely." The man turned his head far enough to spit at Akari, though she easily avoided it, snorting at the attempt as he started cursing again. "Meh, I can't be bothered to see something like that up."

With a nod towards her clone, the idiot was promptly decapitated, his head being placed in one storage scroll while he was diced up, his arms, legs and torso each going in their own scroll, then from there into her inventory to be promptly forgotten about. She obviously didn't need his help to find her team, but it would have told her if he feared much, which he probably didn't, not if he was seemingly immortal, a type 2 immortality, compared to Akari's type 1.

Considering how damn fast she healed though, she might as well have had type-2 immortality. **"Akari, who-"** Akari cut Kurama off sharply.

"Please, don't." Was all she asked, though her voice made it damn clear she didn't want to say a word about who it was that set her off so violently, much to Zetsu's downfall. "I'll...I'll tell you later. For now, let's just get those cubs back." Closing her eyes, Akari used the Hiraishin on the back of Aiko's Hitai-ate, appearing in the middle of a pretty decent room all things considered.

Her team were all around the door, and it appeared as though they were all trying to listen, though they each had spun around in surprise at the flash of red which signalled Akari's arrival. "Heya kits, how's it going?" She stepped forwards and ruffled their hair, creating a Shadow Clone to grab Aiko while she laid her hands on Tachiko and Hikaru's heads, sending all of them back to her Hiraishin marker at the main camp.

"Well, that was exciting."

* * *

Finally getting off the hook for disappearing solo to go hunt down her team, Akari slipped into the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, closing her eyes for a moment.

With her eyes closed still, Akari opened up her menu, lazily scrolling to and fro, her mind just...blank. She'd killed someone wielding a Rinnegan, something even Kurama expressed worry about. But it was just so...so easy! Her Agility was actually making her have less fun than before. A fight had to be a challenge at the very least, or things would just get tiresome.

Sure, there was still Iwa to crush, but the issue was that if Akari wanted to, really wanted to, she could just spawn a hundred Shadow Clones, each with enough Chakra to last over 72 hours, then just send them all blitzing across Iwa kicking ass using her Agility to its utmost effect. Or she could just run to Iwagakure itself, then use Kurama's Chakra with her Lightning to produce the same unorthodox lightning bomb which gave her the strange lightning affinity, then just Hiraishin back to the border, levelling the village entirely with the blast.

The problem was that Akari was fairly sure that she'd now broken whatever 'canon' this Universe was meant to have. With killing that Zetsu thing, as well as Nagato and Obito, then earlier killing Orochimaru and Danzo, she'd probably removed most of the hard enemies she was supposed to encounter later on, catching them before they could build their proper repertoire of abilities which would make them a hard fight. Perhaps there were others she knew nothing about, people who could give her a challenge, but, right now, Akari was confident in her ability to call herself the strongest Shinobi in the Elemental Nations.

Granted, most of that was off of her speed, but she also had enough Chakra for over six-hundred and seventy Shadow Clones, without relying on Kurama's Chakra whatsoever. They would all only last an hour, but that many Shadow Clones was enough to overwhelm an army, plus after only five minutes, she'd be ready to produce another 670 clones...she was a powerhouse now, both in speed, and in Chakra.

Sighing, she brought up her notifications, her eyes glazing slightly as she read the rewards and huffed.

**Quest Completed!**

**Endless Eyes.**

**Objective:**

**Recover your team without casualties - completed.**

**Reward: 500,000 Experience**

**Hidden Objectives:**

**Capture Uzumaki Nagato's body - completed.**

**Reward - Optional Rinnegan Implantation**

**Ensure Zetsu (Black and White) has been destroyed - completed.**

**Reward - 350,000 Experience, Optional Hashirama Cells Implantation**

Closing her menu down, Akari just laid down where she was, spreading her arms out as she stared up at the sky. She really didn't give a damn any more...Hashirama Cells? A Rinnegan? What was the point? She was already strong enough to fight any comer and be confident that she'd come out on top, so why would she bother getting even more strength, just to widen that gap between her and a fun fight?

Then again, getting stronger...sure, it would cost her some short-term enjoyment, but in the long term, it would ensure that Naruto and the others were safe. Gritting her teeth, Akari opened the menu, going into her quests and stopping with her finger hovering above the two options. Did she want...yeah, she wanted both. Akari pressed the Rinnegan Implantation, a menu opening.

It asked her which eye she would prefer to have replaced, or if she would like both to be replaced, but warned her that she would lose the Sharingan in that eye. That wasn't exactly a difficult choice, she replaced her left eye, wincing as she felt an uncomfortable sensation around her eye, like fingers brushing every part of her eye at once. Shutting her eye, Akari ignored the feeling and waited until it stopped, re-opening her eye then frowning. Things didn't look too different, but then again, the Rinnegan wasn't like the Sharingan she supposed.

Selecting the second option saw a far more violent reaction, Akari curling in on herself and biting down on her lip to stop herself from cursing as her insides felt like someone had poured hydrofluoric acid all over her guts then sealed her skin back up. Fortunately much like the Rinnegan, the pain only lasted for maybe ten seconds, receding and leaving her feeling...funny.

Akari got up from her position laying on the ground, brushing out the grass that managed to get stuck in her hair, then closed her quests and opened her stats screen, quirking her mouth to the side in confusion. Her Chakra points had received an extra 1.5x multiplier, probably thanks to the Hashirama cells, then a pretty crazy three times multiplier for the Rinnegan, whilst her health had been tripled, the Hashirama Cells apparently having a major effect on her life-force.

Scrolling down, Akari muttered as she listed off each of her new Jutsu, focusing on the more notable ones. She now had Six 'Paths', which each referred to a school of abilities. In alphabetical order, she had the Animal Path for summoning any animal she wished, even fictional ones. She had the Asura Path, granting her the ability to summon mechanized armour and weaponry. The Deva Path was the one responsible for the gravity attacks Nagato had used against her.

Then there was the Human Path, the one Nagato was probably going to attempt to use on her, which apparently could suck out souls, bypassing how 'tough' someone was. Against her...Akari didn't want to know how close she'd actually come to having her soul ripped out to be...devoured, or maybe just destroyed, by the Rinnegan-wielding Uzumaki. The Naraka Path was able to interrogate a person, pulling their tongue out then killing them if they lied. It could also repair a body if placed within a mouth which would appear, so if someone was really injured, she could use that to heal them.

She spared a chance at her left hand, but shook her head. She didn't need to fix herself, she was happy how she was. The final path was the Preta Path, the one he used to absorb her Lightning. Those were the Six Paths...but Akari noticed a seventh, one that for some reason wasn't listed with the regular Six Paths. Upon reading what it said, Akari couldn't help the mumbled curse that slipped out her lips. "That's bullshit..."

The Outer Path could do three things. It could manifest Chakra Chains much like the Uzumaki signature Sealing Chains, which also mirrored them in being extremely adept as suppressing Bijuu Chakra. It could also transmit Chakra through 'Black Receivers', a weird metallic material she could produce which could allow her to use the aforementioned Chakra Chains without getting close, simply by making the manifest through the receivers.

But, the final, most terrifying ability, was the Rinne Tensei no Jutsu, the only one she read each word for.

**Rinne Tensei no Jutsu - This Jutsu allows the user to return the souls of the deceased to either their original bodies, or suitable substitute bodies, at the cost of the user's own life-force. Cost - 15,000CP + 35,000 HP per soul returned**

That was...terrifying. If she used the Naraka Path to repair their corpses...Akari could potentially return anybody to life. She shivered as a chill ran over her back. This was like her Megano no Mon, but so, so much more worrying. if it was learned that she could repair a body to perfect condition then bring the dead person back to life...she would never stop running.

Unbidden, her memories of Kushina and Minato struck at her mind. "Fuck it." She didn't care if she'd be hunted across the Elemental Nations for it, Naruto deserved his parents back. Maybe Hiruzen would be able to explain how Minato and Kushina had survived, but it was more likely that she'd be pinned with this. But, at the very least, this time, it was entirely her choice to do it. "Hey Kurama, you see all of this as well?"

One of the things that Akari had managed to get working was allowing Kurama to see her interface. Considering how he already knew about her Game, letting him see just saved her the hassle of telling him what she wanted help with. **"...Are you sure about this Akari?"** She nodded. **"Then...go for it. I just ask that...that you don't ever revive my father...he earned his rest, don't interrupt it just for curiosity."** Blinking, Akari smirked.

"Can I at least use Megami no Mon to chat with him?" All she got in response was a disgruntled growl.

* * *

**...Akari might be going to Harry Potter or Bleach.**

**A lot of people seem to be not too keen on her going to StarCraft, so...Poll time! After this story is over and Akari intrepidly goes off to new horizons, which Fandom would you like her to go to next? You are welcome to suggest other Universes for Akari to go to, but I reserve the right to deny them just based off the fact I wouldn't be able to write them effectively, like One Piece or Code: Geass.**

**So please, just go to my profile, at the top the poll is there, toss your vote in, or just hit me up with a message if you don't see your chosen Universe there. I will tell you if I'm not comfortable writing that Universe though, don't worry!**

**Hope you enjoyed boos!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 149**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 83,888****/****149,000**

**To Next Level: 65,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 166.6*/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 454,500 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 166.6*/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 100**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 100**

**Luck - 100**

_**30 Skill Points Available**_


	50. Chapter 50

**Chapter 50...**

**Words...can't really express what that little number means to be now. Fifty chapters of writing, pouring whatever madness my very own brain came up with.**

**But...what really, honestly, truly and I can't stress this enough, seriously, blows my mind is...you all. 800+ reviews, over a thousand followers and favourites, and then, aaaaand then, over 200,000 views.**

**I just...I really just want to say how much I adore you all, truly. Reading your reviews and just hearing those little bits you liked, the bits that weren't as good, and just...know that somewhere in the world, one more person had a nice day reading my fanfiction...**

**So...thank you all so much. I'll stop being sappy now, enjoy the chapter boos!**

_**Chapter 50**_

* * *

Smirking, Akari slipped off her branch with a casual hop, splaying her arms out to control her fall.

As she neared the ground, Akari pivoted until she was falling feetfirst, her boots smashing straight into the face of the shocked Chunin who just so happened to pick her trees to move under. He'd looked up at the odd sound her falling made, just early enough to be shocked before her boots snapped his head back nearly a hundred and eighty degrees with a delightfully loud cracking noise, alerting the rest of his party as to the fact something had just gone horribly wrong...for them.

As she impacted the ground, Akari tucked into a forwards roll using the freshly-made corpse as a cushion, coming up with several Senbon in both hands which she tossed, each one having a mild explosive tag tightly bound around the shaft. Of course, mild for her wasn't quite the same as a normal Shinobi's mild, the craters suddenly pockmarking every impact point of her weapons could attest to that, rending limbs from torsos, one of her Senbon even hitting a Chunin directly in the throat, making him burst in a vicious shower of gore, a section of his guts smacking the face of a nearby Kunoichi in the face which, try as she might, Akari couldn't help but laugh at, just a little.

Baring her teeth in a feral grin, Akari let her Rinnegan open, the rippling eye a terrifying visage for her enemies as she narrowed her gaze. "Asura Path." She turned her palm to the sky, the sound of metal clashing as she pictured what mechanical object she wanted, being left with a nondescript pistol in a mishmash of styles, most prominently looking like a Russian Makarov merged with an Israeli Jericho. She wrapped her hand around the grip, relishing the feeling of holding a gun again, before levelling it at the nearest Iwa-nin, the idiot thinking he might have been able to get the drop on her while she was busy making her weapon.

With a loud bark, the gun fired, the bullet impacting his jaw and shattering it, sending him screaming to the floor. Frowning, Akari tossed the pistol away, forming a shotgun this time, a crude pump-action which didn't even really resemble a weapon from her world. As she fired it at the new nearest enemy nin, she just couldn't shake the feeling that guns were just...underwhelming now. Even the loud bark of a shotgun sawing some poor schmuck in half just didn't do it for her anymore, not compared to, well...

With a sigh, Akari discarded that shotgun, levelling her right palm towards a group of Iwa-nin, all of whom were trying to flee. "Shinra Tensei." A blast of invisible gravitational force rocketed out of her hand, slamming into the midst of the enemy nin then violently detonating, creating an attack much like a pressure-wave fro man explosion, rupturing internal organs, tearing flesh from bone, and turning the one the Jutsu impacted into mulch.

She formed a few hand seals, spitting out several water bullets to catch those few nin trying to run away. The Rinnegan had given her all five Nature Transformations as primary affinities, though she hadn't noticed that for a little while, too distracted by the idea of bringing Kushina and Minato back. It meant she could quite happily manipulate the elements directly, making her own unique Jutsu quite easily.

Akari was no Tobirama, inventing Jutsu left, right and centre, but she'd already come up with a few ideas, like a throwable ball of lightning held within a larger ball of water, or a long-release lightning attack, one she could fire off and have it act more like a dispenser than an instant bomb. She just hadn't bothered to put them into practice, since with the other abilities of the Rinnegan, she found she really didn't need to.

Pointing her palm down towards a corpse, she fired a Black Receiver into his back, wincing as she felt the nervous system of his body shudder. Then, he slowly got up, the duality of two different pairs of eyes giving Akari a headache as her brain tried and failed to comprehend how she was seeing from two places at once. It wasn't listed as far as Akari could tell, but by using the Black Receivers, she could essentially puppet a corpse, seeing through its eyes, controlling it, and even using one of her Six Paths through it. But, for some reason, after using one technique from a single Path, the corpse became entirely unable to use another path, essentially hard-locking it in that Path.

Not that it mattered, since she just sent the corpse charging towards his former allies, while she sat back, trying to get used to fighting using someone else's body. Maybe this was how the Yamanaka's felt when they possessed someone, having to quickly get used to their skill-set so they could use it against them. To be fair, Akari just sort of made his body charge, but quickly gave up when she remembered just how...slow other people could be. She overextended in a swing thanks to the fact that his body simply didn't have the same strength or speed as hers, getting his arm lopped off followed quickly by his head.

She casually tossed a Kunai with an explosive tag into the leg of the one who killed her 'puppet', blasting the Kunoichi's legs and midriff out from under her. At this point, quite a few of the Iwa-nin were cutting their losses and fleeing away towards the mountains in the distance marking Iwagakure's border with Kusa. She only let a small handful escape, the unfortunate rest each had their throats slit by Shadow Clones waiting just for such an occasion, their corpses littering the ground. Genin, Chunin, or Jonin, it didn't matter, none of them could match her Shadow Clones for speed.

With a flick of her hands, more Senbon found their way between her fingers, dripping with poison. Akari had finally perfected her poison mixture, though she didn't have a name for it yet. The poison was just a mix of twenty-seven different poisons, each between danger rating 7 and 15, all of them congealing together into a hyper-lethal mix. The only person immune to it was Akari herself, which meant that she could throw down a vial filled with an airborne version of the mixture, and be 99.9% sure that everyone nearby was going to die.

She just didn't need to use it.

* * *

"Wait, they're already surrendering?"

Frowning, Akari gestured around at the mountainous terrain surrounding the Konoha camp when Shigaraki confirmed his previous words. "But, we're still miles away from Iwagakure itself. I guess it's probably me causing this again, huh?" The man snorted.

"Well obviously, what with some worshipping you as the second coming of the Sage of Six Paths, I'm not surprised they're trying to surrender." Now it was Akari's turn to snort. She knew a bit about Hagoromo thanks to Kurama, and she knew that for all her strength, he was probably stronger. Maybe she could win if she turned it into a Fuinjutsu battle, having hit level 100 in her proficiencies only recently, but her other proficiencies were all still under level 90, so considering how skilled the man was, he'd probably win.

Though, who knew, maybe she could pull a trick or two out of her inventory to surprise him and get the upper hand. Not that she ever wanted to fight him of course. "So, am I going along with Hiruzen to the peace treaty again?" The man shook his head. "Awh, why not? I wanted to insult Onoki again, that was fun damn it!"

Chuckling, Shigaraki passed her a sheet of paper. "Because Hokage-sama wants you in the village while he's away, just to make sure they don't pull anything while the treaty is being signed. Kumo, Kiri and Suna are all going to be there as well, since after hearing of what you pulled off, none of them want anything to do with this war. It's strange how quickly they went from all-out war to peace negotiations, but I suppose nobody wants to fight someone wielding a Rinnegan." Humming, Akari had a different idea as to why things turned out like this.

Fugaku. Not the man himself of course, but the fact that he was under a Genjutsu. Since Obito, then afterwards Zetsu and Nagato, really wanted her for Kurama, for some nefarious reason no doubt, and had no qualms about killing people, surely if they really didn't care that much, they wouldn't mind starting a Fourth Shinobi War, just to create enough chaos for them to move forwards with their goals.

Considering they wanted Kurama, it begged the question of why? **"Perhaps they planned to collect my siblings as well, to reform the Juubi?"** Kurama helpfully piped in his opinion, making her look at the event fro that angle. It matched up pretty well, aside from why the hell they wanted to bring the Ten-tails back to life. Then it hit her. Obito had a Mangekyo. Since the Ten-tails was still a tailed beast, he would be able to control it. Perhaps he intended to control it and use it as a weapon against someone, perhaps Konoha or just the villages in general?

Akari shook her head, clearing her thoughts as she took the movement orders Shigaraki had placed before her. She'd never know, and she didn't mind that, since they were all dead now. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around then? Say hi to Nezu for me!" With a wave, she vanished into crimson, appearing in the middle of her bedroom in the blink of an eye by using her Hiraishin. "I wonder how those three are doing..." Akari mused out loud, as her team, as well as all the other Genin from the borders, had been recalled to Konoha already, the Hokage's sentimentality showing.

Granted, it was also because Akari was single-handedly whooping Iwa's ass, but they could have merely been redeployed to Yu no Kuni or even the eastern and southern coast to defend against incursions from Kiri. Though the fact that it meant she knew the chances of her team suddenly getting kidnapped again were even lower than after she burned Zetsu to ashes certainly was a bonus.

Cracking her back, Akari left her room and wandered downstairs, heading for the living room where she collapsed down onto the sofa, sighing in contentment as the chair bounced with her. It wasn't like she hated camping out or anything, but a sleeping bag was never as comfortable as a sofa or a proper bed, so getting the chance to be lazy and relax in her living room was a welcome comfort.

Closing her eyes for a few minutes, Akari just let herself do absolutely nothing. She knew she was probably supposed to be going straight to the Hokage, but ten minutes extra wouldn't hurt, though she made sure to re-open her eyes and sit up when she felt herself slipping off to sleep. Ten minutes would be fine, but if an ANBU came by and saw her napping away on her sofa, that wouldn't be as explainable.

She eventually got up, trooping back upstairs so she could get a look at herself in a mirror, wincing as she immediately withdrew a brush and clawed away at her hair. She wasn't someone who really cared much about her outwards appearance, but showing up at the Hokage's office with hair that looked like the aftermath of a motorway pile-up was not a good idea.

Dousing a finger in water, Akari then began wiping away any flecks of blood still stuck to her face, none of it hers, most of it generated by using Shinra Tensei on people directly and making them explode with the force, or throwing explosive tags around like they were receipts. "Heh, here you go sir, one receipt for death." She mumbled, scratching away at a particularly solid clump of blood.

She took a sniff of herself as she finished washing her face off, deciding she smelled fine enough for someone just coming back from a war, then stripped off her vest and trousers, using her inventory to swap them around. She'd taken to carrying several sets of back-ups in case something got coated in blood, which made changing a cinch. Of course, she could have just used a Henge to cover up the bloodstains, or just used a Henge to cover herself all the time...no, that sounded creepy. Maybe it would save on clothing, but...yeah, no.

Plus, if anyone ever looked at her with an ability that could see through Henges...nope! She quickly bound the bottom of her trousers in wrappings to hold it down, shrugging the vest on, then looked at herself in the mirror, tilting her head to the side as she really looked at herself. Her hair had grown out a little, the tip of her thick ponytail now brushing down just beneath her shoulder-blades, while her body proportions were mostly the same, of moderately thin arms, surprisingly pale skin despite the time she'd spent out in the sun, and a decently-small chest.

A stray thought of Tsunade crossed her mind, making her snort. That poor woman must have had a hell of a time getting used to fighting with those giant bags in the way. Akari was honestly quite happy how she was, even...well, as she twisted her left arm around, she was honestly, after proper introspection, happy with herself just the way she was. Sure, she could replace her hand super-easily just by using the Naraka Path, but, in truth...

...She wasn't just happy, she was...content.

* * *

Walking through Konoha was certainly a different experience than only a few short weeks ago.

Everywhere she looked, people were either fearful of her, in awe, or simply respectful. There weren't many middle-grounds whatsoever, as apparently she was now extremely well-known, a step or three above being well-known as she was before. It might have had something to do with the whole bringing all of the previous Hokage's back to life to save Konoha, or maybe the fact she was now known to possess a Rinnegan of all things, but whatever it was, Akari was now even more known than when she was the Jinchuriki for Kurama. "Ehh, Aniki?" Turning her head, Akari spotted Sei walking nearby

"Imouto?" She walked over to Sei, giving him a quick hug. As she let go of him, she watched him tip his gaze up and down her. "What? Oh, let me guess, this thing makes me look weird? Or...oh, right, my affinities." Of course Akari would look different to her brother, Sei saw based on affinities after all, which made identifying people difficult sometimes, though she supposed maybe he learned a way to distinguish between certain Chakra networks...somehow. "Yeah, this damn eye gave me an affinity for all five Nature Transformations, so...what do I even look like now?"

Sei reached to brush her temple, a smile on his lips. "Just as beautiful as ever Imouto." Dipping her head, Akari grinned, lunging forwards to hug her brother far more tightly this time around." So, how've you been, you fighting hard out there sis?" Making a noise in her throat, Akari shrugged, releasing her brother from the hug.

"I guess. I mean, they've called me back to Konoha while stuff happens, but I think I've been making a big enough ruckus to scare the other villages into submission." As Akari spoke, her mind suddenly ticked over onto a very important fact. "Uhh, Aniki...I-...when I've finished with meeting Hokage-sama, so in like half an hour, can you drop by my place? I...want to ask you something, it involves, well, my Rinnegan, so I don't want to just talk about it." Her brother was obviously curious, but realized that she had an ability she wanted to tell him about in secret much like her second Mangekyo ability.

"Okay Imouto, just...be careful, hmm?" Smiling, she gave Sei a final brief hug, disappearing with his promise that he'd show up at her house ringing in her ears, and her forehead feeling warm from the gentle kiss he'd planted there. She could finally fix things for her brother. Putting her idea in the back of her mind so she didn't look like a grinning maniac all the way to the Hokage's Tower, she certainly did nothing to stop the smile on her face or the happy lolling of her head as she strode towards the large tower.

Other people took note of this, but of course, with nothing to base it off, simply knew that Akari was undoubtedly in a very good mood about something. While those who still harboured hatred and suspicion of her for being Kurama's Jinchuriki merely sneered at this, others found their own day lightened just a little by the almost palpable joy Akari was radiating.

In short order she arrived at the tower, bypassing the mission office and heading straight up the stairs, passing by two Chunin who waved as she breezed by, then arrived at the desk of Hiruzen's receptionist. "Heya Asha, I'm supposed to be seeing the Hokage about my assignment while he heads off to this peace negotiation." The woman gave her a pleasant smile, waving one hand at the door.

"Please, go right ahead, I'm sure he'd appreciate the break from paperwork." Grinning, Akari entered the office, barely seeing Hiruzen's hat behind the towering masses of white which made up the daily paperwork the village generated. By this point, Akari was seriously feeling sorry for the poor man, so she decided against giving him a heart attack by spooking him.

"Hokage-sama, are you in there?" She made a show of standing on her tip-toes to look over the papers, watching him shunt aside a stack with a sigh. "Okay, before anything, I just...I have to bring this up. Is there a reason you do all this paperwork without using even a single Shadow Clone to help?" The old man stared at her for a few moments, seemingly aging a few years right in front of her eyes.

"And people still call me the Professor." He took his pipe and puffed on it, leaning back in his chair, seemingly relishing the break Akari had given him. "Now, I know you'd probably want to come along and rub it into Onoki's face that you were the one to stop Iwa's attack for the third time in under ten years, but I want you here in Konoha. I don't doubt that the other villages will look for any way to turn this war into their favour before the official armistice comes into play as we each move towards Tetsu no Kuni to negotiate peace-deals." Humming, Akari could certainly see that.

Right now, it was undisputed that Konoha had the advantage. In peace-talks, that was huge! Whoever was seen as having the advantage in the war had way more leverage to force actions like mission diversions, financial reimbursement, even things like demanding replacement weapon shipments. As such, unless the other three villages did something to level the field a little, they would certainly be coming out of this in the red. "So, you want me to look after Konoha while you go do this?" The man nodded, puffing on his pipe. "Ehh, whatever. So, you gonna use a few Shadow Clones in your stead to keep things running?" The man stared at her for a few more moments, making it clear he hadn't thought of that either.

"...Never let anyone say you don't think outside of the box, Akari-chan."

* * *

**Yes, it's shorter.**

**This chapter is just showing off Akari using some of her powers, correcting a mistake I made (The Rinnegan gives a mastery over all five basic nature transformations), setting up something I wanted Akari to do, as well as having her finally tell Hiruzen that he should just use Shadow Clones to help him do paperwork.**

**Don't forget, there's a poll at the very top of my profile for where Akari is going to go next. So please, leave a vote on there for whichever Universe you'd like her to go to!**

**And Seiiiii! He's still my favourite ever OC, he's just...I love him so much, he's so sweet, and badass, and ahhhhh, best big brother material still going strong. Screw pulling a Ninja Gamer and killing him, Sei is just a sweetheart.**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 149**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 83,888****/****149,000**

**To Next Level: 65,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.3/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 454,500 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.3/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 100**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 100**

**Luck - 100**

_**30 Skill Points Available**_


	51. Chapter 51

**Obligatory Poll Announcement: Go vote for which Universe you think Akari should visit next!**

**Link is at the very top of my profile!**

**Also sorry this is a little late, I got super-distracted playing House Flipper!**

_**Chapter 51**_

* * *

After wrapping up her chat with the Hokage, Akari left through the door, like a sane person.

She understood why a lot of people liked leaving through the window, it facilitated getting away from the building faster. Of course, if she wanted to leave in a hurry she would just use the Hiraishin, but she didn't mind taking a few minutes to slowly walk down the tower, saying hello to the passing Genin, Chunin and Jonin who would come up and down at varying speeds. Only a few brushed past without really reacting to her saying hello, most of them reached much like the civilians she'd walked by on the way there.

There was concealed hatred in a few gazes, some were fearful, others were happy to see her, it was just a myriad of reactions. Before long she reached the bottom, leaving the building without much hassle. The Hokage had made clear that she was technically not assigned a mission directly, but instead she was just to remain in Konoha and respond to any threats that cropped up during his absence. Unfortunately, Akari didn't get a quest pop-up for this unlisted mission of sorts, which was a bit of a shame, but since she felt strong enough right now as it was, she wasn't too upset about things.

As she walked, Akari opened her menu, humming quietly to herself as she tried to pick a place for her thirty points to be placed within. Eventually, she decided she would simply split them in half, placing 15 into Intelligence, then fifteen into Wisdom, bumping her total Chakra up to practically six-hundred-thousand, her regeneration to 440 points per second. That meant that, if she wanted, she could become a permanent flamethrower using the Gokakyu no Jutsu. Not what she ever would need to do that, but it was a nice framing device.

Wandering down the street towards the centre of Konoha, Akari tried to think of things she needed to do. First up, show Sei what she had planned. Secondly, bring Minato and Kushina back in time for Naruto's birthday, since it was approaching the end of September now and his birthday was in October. She needed to get a few of her knives worked on, the blades were wearing down a bit despite her trying to keep them together and unbroken, so she could visit Terumasa, see if he could maybe work on them a bit. If they were just too worn-down then that was fine, Akari only used them occasionally now, since her repertoire of attacks had drastically widened, plus she had the Kusanagi, which was unbreakable anyway.

After only a little while walking Akari arrived in front of her house, unlocking the door and walking inside, closing the door behind herself as she made for the kitchen. Since she'd told Sei to meet her here half an hour after meeting him, she had maybe ten minutes before he was due to show up, meaning she had some spare time to-. Never mind, someone was knocking on the door.

She spun around and stepped back to the door, pulling it open. "Oh, uh, hey there Dei, nice to see ya." She smiled at the blonde as he raised his hand in greeting, the mouth on his palm not making her nearly as uncomfortable as the first time she'd seen it. "You want to come in?" He accepted, wiping his sandals on the mat then putting them in the rack. "...I always forget to do that." She mumbled, looking down at her own boots.

"Much like how you forget suffixes, huh Akari-chan?" She rubbed her neck sheepishly. "I thought you were out on the border with Iwa, so what's this about you being back in the village?" Deidara spoke as he walked over to the living room, Akari following him then leaping onto the other sofa. She idly noted Kurama appear from the seal then hop up onto her back, from there leaping to the nearest pathway up on the walls, draping himself lazily down with one leg and his tail dangling off the edge.

Rolling her head, she turned to look at Deidara, letting her left eye switch to the Rinnegan. "Well, this probably had something to do with it, huh? I kinda went wild and tore three Iwa-nin war parties into shreds letting maybe twelve survivors flee out of at least a few hundred. I think Iwa collectively are agreeing that I'm now worse than Minato in their eyes, by far." While he didn't seem all too happy that his home village was being, to put it bluntly, beaten down by Akari's sole actions, Dei still gave her a smirk.

"So, business as usual then, un?" As he spoke, Deidara made a few small clay sculptures to wander around the room, a flying dragon which immediately flew over to Akari and perched on her outstretched arm then walked along it onto her back, leaning over a hundred and eighty degrees to peer into her eyes while its head was upside-down, making Akari snort.

As she carefully got up from her prone position on the sofa with the little dragon carefully walking to sit on her shoulder, she snapped her fingers. "I just realized something awesome." She closed her left eye then re-opened it with the Rinnegan activated, mentally picturing exactly what she wanted. "Animal Path." With a puff of smoke, a small blue and green dragon appeared on the floor, about the same size as the one Deidara produced, only this one was fully coloured, whereas his was just the muddy red of his clay.

She vaguely recalled that animals she summoned were supposed to let her see through their eyes and act much like the 'puppets' she could use with the Black Receivers, but maybe because she pictured this one with blue eyes rather than Rinnegan eyes, it didn't have that same effect. She could still command it, as evidenced by it hopping onto her hand then hopping off into her lap, curling up into a ball of scales. "I think mine are cooler now. I mean, they can't explode, but..." She gestured a hand at the scaly little dragon.

"As much as it pains me to admit, your art is more beautiful than mine...in looks only, un!" As she brushed a hand down her new dragon's back, the door was knocked on a second time. "Are you expecting someone, un?" Grinning, Akari was about to move, then thought better of it, making a Shadow Clone who went over and opened the door, accepting that she had to stay still and keep petting her awesome new dragon.

Stood outside, as expected, was Sei, who the clone quickly let in, shut the door behind, then dispersed into nothingness. She knew despite being unable to see the door, her clone's memories had of course been delivered right to her head. "In here, Aniki!" She called loudly enough for him to hear, smirking as he rounded the corner and his head tilted several directions to look at all of Deidara's creations flying around. "Oh, those are all just Dei's clay." She then hefted the dragon on her lap a little. "This critter, on the other hand, is all mine."

"And, what exactly is that, Imouto?" Her brother asked, giving a wave to Deidara then settling down on the couch beside Akari. Waiting a few moments for dramatic effect, Akari them plopped the dragon on Sei's lap, snickering at his slightly panicked shifting.

"That, my dear brother, is a dragon...a real one that is." Her brother stared at her a few moments, looking down hastily as the dragon lifted its head and stood up, pawing around for a few moments before turning its head to look at him, yawning as it tipped its head to the side. "Don't worry, it's harmless...well, harmless to you. This little one wouldn't hurt a fly...unless I wanted it to." With a single thought, the dragon's head snapped towards her arm, nearly smacking Sei in the face as it unfurled its wings and in a single powerful sweep and a hop, flew right onto Akari's arm. "See?"

Her brother just shook his head, a smile on his face as he leaned over and ruffled her hair. "Only you would manage to make a real dragon Imouto." Grinning, she leaned into his hand, eventually slumping so far she just gave up and leaned against his side. "So, what was it you wanted to show me?" Humming for a moment, Akari shifted so she could whisper in his ear, deciding that Deidara could see as well, if he was patient enough to-

"Well, I suppose you two don't need me, and I do have business, so I'll see you around, okay Akari-chan?" Well, that made that far simpler. Sure, people were going to probably put two and two together about things, but if he wanted to disappear, he was more than welcome to. Akari waved him goodbye, getting up from the sofa as he left the building.

Pulling her brother up by his hands, Akari lowered her voice, her seriousness on full display. "Aniki, you trust me right?" He stared at her for a few moments, as if asking what kind of dumb question that was, before nodding. "Okay...I, uhh...well, that is to...oh fuck it." Spawning the 'King of Hell' behind her brother, Akari shoved him into it, giving hin a wave as he disappeared.

Sure, the thing looked creepy and had a disturbing name, but her Game had never, not once, lied to her about an ability. As such, she wasn't afraid for her brother, nor surprised when the mouth of the King opened again, revealing her brother stood there in pure shock, even a little anger. He was probably pissed at the surprise, but all of that was washed away when, for the first time in almost seven years, he opened his eyes.

He stood there, stunned for a moment and blinking before his onyx eyes settled on Akari. "Surprise, I kinda...I can fix people now." Sei turned slightly to look at the King of Hell as it disappeared, then looked back at Akari, a massive grin appearing on his face as he stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around Akari, lifting her up with ease as he hugged her.

Stifling the urge to tear up, Akari returned his hug, burying her face in his neck and closing her eyes. After six, nearly seven years of blindness, she'd finally gotten a way for her brother to see again. Sure, the Golan Seal let him see as well, but being able to actually see was a far cry from how the seal worked. As her brother broke the hug and held her out at arms length, she tried her best not to frown at his expression. "Imouto, you can't let anybody know you have this."

She rolled her eyes, breaking out of his grip casually though making sure not to hurt him, subtly telling him that she'd gotten even stronger than before. "Well, I'm not exactly going to go shouting at the rooftops about being able to regenerate people but...there's a few people I can't just ignore. I promise I won't just use it stupidly to heal everybody in the world, that's just asking for trouble, but...well, don't be surprised when two people presumed dead suddenly re-emerge." She then snickered as she realized the clusterfuck this was going to cause Hiruzen.

Meh, he'd be away from Konoha anyway, a nice coming-home present to give him when he got back.

* * *

Getting ahold of Minato and Kushina's bodies was, surprisingly, a piece of cake.

With her Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, sneaking into the Hokage's burial ground was easy, though she had to manually dig up his body to avoid tipping any of the sensors off that something was amiss, making her slightly regret losing Megami no Te when she got her eye replaced. Not too much regret though, since if she didn't, she wouldn't be doing what she was right now, digging away at Minato's grave and feeling a bit bad about it.

She'd already brought him forth in her home using Megami no Mon and asked him if he wanted to be brought back to life, the same as Kushina. They both expressed worry about the whole thing, but after some convincing both accepted, with Minato informing her of where he was probably buried. Kushina was in the regular cemetery, since in the eyes of Konoha she was not worth the same level of respect as Minato, even though she was arguably more important than he was for holding Kurama for such a long time.

As she scraped away another patch of dirt, she saw the lining of Minato's coffin, whacking a storage seal onto it to save time, pulling the paper into her inventory, then using the Hiraishin to vanish from the graveyard, leaving the dirt piled up, she could come back later if she had to, but she cared more about just getting this done with, since today was Naruto's birthday, meaning it had to be today, not one day later. Brushing a little dirt away from her eye, she took out the two storage seals holding Kushina and Minato, placing them on the floor and unsealing their coffins, immediately throwing them into the King of Hell's mouth.

She didn't quite know how the Shinigami was going to react when she stole Minato from him, as for all intents and purposes the Shinigami was allowed to gnaw on his soul for all eternity. Since she'd already been stealing him on a temporary basis, she reckoned the being was going to be rather pissed off at her, not that it mattered. As long as she didn't die, he'd have no opening to attack her.

As the now-pristine bodies of Minato and Kushina were rolled out of the mouth, she gave the large...thing, a quick pat to say thank you as it disappeared, then focused on the two corpses. They both looked as if they were merely sleeping, despite six years having passed since their deaths. The King of Hell really was great at healing. "Welp, this is gonna hurt."

Closing her eyes, Akari focused for a moment, forming the two hand seals necessary for the technique, but stopped before she could actually use it. It was...probably not a good idea to revive them inside of her home, not if she wanted plausible deniability for the whole thing, at least in the eyes of the masses. Placing the two pristine bodies into storage seals, Akari snatched them both up then Hiraishin'd to a marker she'd left in the middle of the forest on the way to the border with Iwa.

This time, as she placed the bodies down and performed the hand seals, she didn't hesitate. "Gedo: Rinne Tensei no Jutsu." As a quarter of her health was drained, she dropped to one knee with a gasp. That was more health than she'd lost in a very long time. The King of Hell appeared again, looking at her for half a second as if to ask why he was being summoned so much when the price was so high, but then opened his mouth and released two green lines, both of which darted for the two corpses, their eyes blinking open slowly.

Akari released the breath she was holding as she watched Minato slowly and unsteadily sit up. It seemed that the Rinne Tensei was able to pull souls even out of the Shinigami's influence. She had no doubt that the Shinigami would not be kind to her if she died for stealing his...meal? Ornament? Well, for stealing whatever Minato was to him.

As Kushina also sat up, she grinned at them both. "Yo. I realised bringing you two back in the middle of Konoha might not have been the best idea so here we are. Uhh, I have no idea how any of this is going to be explained so I'll leave it up to you two to comeup with an explanation. If you want to involve me in it then cool, whatever, but whenever you're ready, Naruto will be at my place, so you can surprise him whenever you want, as long as you do it today."

Minato gave her a smile, standing up then nearly falling over, which made her and Kushina laugh. "It's...we'll figure it out Akari-chan. I'll see you back in Konoha, hmm?" Nodding, Akari made to disappear, but found herself grabbed in a strangehold by Kushina, who furiously rubbed at her hair, despite her squirming. She knew she could break Kushina's hold if she wanted to, but she felt the woman deserved whatever she was going to say.

"And if you try to escape me one more time I'm trapping you with my chains and forcing you into a dress!" Balking, Akari quickly nodded, being released from the hold and immediately vanishing into her signature crimson flash. Maybe she didn't quite deserve that much, the only way Akari was wearing a dress was if she had to do it for some inane reason to save Naruto.

Dresses sucked after all.

* * *

As she pulled a pan of Dango off the hob, Akari heard the door open then close, smiling to herself.

She heard Naruto walk upstairs, then came back down after a minute or two, walking into the kitchen, freezing up at he laid eyes on her. "Kaa-san!" Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him, Akari opened her arms, the little blonde sporting and jumping to wrap his arms around her neck. She carefully avoided nudging the handle of her pan of Dango, propping Naruto up on one arm while she hugged him with the other.

"Hey there Cub, surprise! You want some?" She turned so he could see the Dango she was making, one of his hands already questing for it. "Ah ah ah, not yet, it's only just come off the hob." She pulled a stick from her inventory, giving it to him and getting another hug as payment. "So, how's the Academy been?" Naruto made a whining noise in his throat. "What? It can't be that bad."

Naruto shook his head, mumbling as he buried his face in her neck. "Your clan sucks." She snorted, jostling Naruto a little as she moved to one-handedly remove the Dango from the pan, placing them each on a plate then throwing more unboiled Dango balls into the water, replacing it on the hob. "Sasuke thinks he's better than me at everything! But he's not, I can beat him in Fuinjutsu! Oh, and-and I got the Henge before he did as well!" Smiling, Akari ruffled his hair.

"Well don't let him get you down, they'll make a Shinobi out of you yet!" She plopped Naruto down on the ground, then returned her attention to her Dango-making. That stick she'd given Naruto was her second-to-last one thanks to Kurama's constant nibbling, not that she could turn him down his favourite treat. It just meant she'd mass-produce another ton of Dango sticks, throw them all into her inventory, then have Dango whenever she wanted. "You've been keeping up with your practice then?"

She heard Naruto run out of the room, raising an eyebrow when she turned just to see him vanish round the corner then run up the stairs, presumable to go fetch a seal so she could look at it. As he came back down, she smirked to herself. She didn't know exactly which seal he'd decided to bring her, but, hopefully it was an interesting one. He came around the corner hiding whatever seal he wanted to show her behind his back, suddenly whipping his arms around and chirping. "Ta-da!"

Looking over the seal for a moment, Akari took a second or two to actually figure out what it was, smiling and kneeling down. "And you wrote this on your own?" She asked,d extending a hand so he could put the seal-paper on his hand, nodding all the while. "Well, I mean...I guess that what they say about Uzumaki really isn't just a placebo effect. I know I would never have been able to make a chakra-storage seal when I was your age."

It wasn't an incredibly hard seal to make, but for Naruto, an eight-year-old, to be writing his own seals? That was pretty ridiculous. "Good job Cub." She wrapped an arm around him, planting a soft kiss on his forehead, letting her other hand sneak up to muss his hair up again. "So, you want some ramen to celebrate?" His eyes lit up at the mention of his favourite meal, immediately begging her to start making it now and how he wanted at least three, no four bowls of the stuff please, and a myriad of other things.

Well, if nothing else, Kushina would certainly have that in common with her son.

* * *

With Naruto up in his room, Akari let Minato and Kushina into the house through the back door.

The pair had come around to the back window so Naruto wouldn't know someone had arrived, meaning he had no idea who was waiting in the living room. "So, you sure about this?" Minato asked. Of course, Naruto had already met Kushina so she seeing him wouldn't be as major, but letting your adoptive son know that both his parents were now alive, as well as the fact that one of them was known as the Yondaime Hokage...that would certainly put an interesting twist on the encounter.

"Ehh, why not?" Clearing her throat, Akari yelled up to Naruto from the base of the stairs. "Hey Cub, can you come down here? I've got a surprise for you~!" She waited a few moments, hearing him open his door and walk along the hallway, leaning around the corner to look downstairs. His eyes saw Kushina and widened.

"K-Kaa-san?" Then he hurried down the stairs and saw Minato. "Y-Yondaime-sama?!" Akari looked to him for an explanation, one she was happy to provide.

"Well cub, I uhh...got a new ability, one that let me bring Kushina back for you. So then...I decided to just bring them both back...happy birthday!" Naruto just stared at her for a few moments before launching himself at her, his arm wrapping around her neck for the second time that day. Smiling, She hugged him, waving Kushina and Minato forwards.

The red-headed Uzumaki needed no more coaxing, wrapping her arms around the both of them. Minato just looked a bit sheepish, rubbing his neck, until Kushina reached one arm back, snatched his Haori by the collar and dragged him into the hug as well, the man adopting a content smile as he hugged them all. Akari was the first to break the hug, lifting Naruto up, turning him around, and promptly planting him into Kushina's waiting arms, grinning when she practically smothered the life out of her son. "So, what do you want to wager that he still refuses to call me anything but Kaa-san?" She whispered at Minato.

The man shook his head. "That's a fools bet, you'd be better off asking Tsunade. Speaking of whom, I believe I have an appointment with a certain Sannin about what the duties of a Godfather entail." Akari winced, not wanting to know exactly how hard Minato was going to kick Jiraiya's ass for not helping Akari to look after Naruto. Sure, he grew up just fine with plenty of love, but he trusted the man to at least make a damn effort, Akari not hiding how Jiraiya acted when she and Minato chatted during her training to use the Hiraishin.

"Hey, as long as you give me a front-row seat to Hiruzen's reaction when you appear in front of him, you could do whatever you wanted."

* * *

**I've decided that in my AN's I'm going to do recommendations for Fanfictions I enjoy, since people seemed to appreciate the recommendation I gave for The Clockwork Empress.**

**This isn't a guaranteed 'Every chapter will have a recommendation', since after all, there are only so many fanfictions I've read.**

**This Chapter's recommendation is Moratorium, a Harry Potter Fanfiction about a Female Harry Potter who embraces the morally-grey side of Wizardkind, makes frie-'_Alliances!_' along the way, and it all around is an amazing read. Plus every time I read it I tear up knowing what happens. But my favourite Chapter is Number 4, what Harry and her date get up to during the Yule Ball just...it's so perfect for what I'd expect her to do!**

**Hope you enjoyed!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 149**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 83,888****/****149,000**

**To Next Level: 65,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.33/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 599,625 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 26,450/m - 440.83/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 115**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 115**

**Luck - 100**


	52. Chapter 52

**Argh!**

**I had to replace my mouse and mousemat since my old mouse was failing and the mat was practically torn up anyway, and now I can barely control my new one, it's like riding a fucking Bijuu while tap-dancing and wearing slippers, grah!**

**...This is why I hate having to get a new mouse.**

_**Chapter 52**_

* * *

**"Akari...we have a problem."**

After spending half the afternoon bringing Minato and Kushina up to speed about what's been going on since they were last summoned, Akari heard Kurama speaking in her head, his voice pretty...worried, something she'd never heard before. Even talking about the Rinnegan he didn't sound worried. She left the other three in the living room, telling them that until they figured it out, Minato and Kushina were welcome to stay in her place, then went to her room and sealed it up. "Okay, what's wrong Kurama?"

He drew her into her Mindscape, something she had forgotten he could do, since he did it when she fought Orochimaru. **"Gyuki and Kokuo have disappeared."** Blinking, Akari opened her inventory, her finger scrolling down her list towards where she'd put the two sealed Bijuu, having sort of forgotten about them. Just as Kurama said...the two sealing scrolls weren't in her inventory any more.

"Okay...any idea how that happened? Also how the hell...oh right, I gave you access so you'd stop bugging me for Dango, oops." She shook her head. Kurama was now labelled as being in her...'party', though the only thing that she had enabled for it was that he could open her inventory and retrieve things. She had no interest in giving anybody else access, it...the Game was the only thing that really made her special. Maybe that made her selfish, but with all the other crap she'd put up with, Akari thought being a bit selfish was a worthy payoff.

The fox shook his head. **"I'm not sure. All I know is that I had a hunch, I looked through your 'inventory', and those two scrolls had vanished. I haven't felt a major release of Bijuu Chakra anywhere nearby, so I, unfortunately, have no idea either."** Humming, Akari tapped her chin.

As far as she knew, nothing could touch her inventory. The only one she could think of who could open her inventory was the Entity, since he was able to place items straight into there, he just preferred trolling her. Deciding to bite the bullet, Akari spoke. "Hey Entity, you still around? Something fishy is going on." But she didn't get a response. "Worth a shot I guess. Maybe he's just being a troll...nah, not likely, he probably knows I had planned to make a seal for those two so they couldn't be re-sealed. How your father never thought to do that I have no idea."

She brushed a hand against Kurama's fur, sitting down beside him and humming. "So, what do we know? Gyuki and Kokuo have vanished, the only thing I know aside from me and you who could remove them from my inventory would be the...no, there's the other one, 273." At the mention of his designation, Kurama growled. "I know boo, I don't want to entertain the idea either, but hey, if it does turn out to be him, I'll let you whoop his ass a bit before using whatever the Entity actually gave me to deal with him. It just worries me, since if it was him doing it...

...what would he want Gyuki and Kokuo for?"

* * *

The day after Akari brought Minato and Kushina back to life was the day they made their return to Konoha.

Akari didn't pay too much attention to exactly how they played their deaths off, something about making a deal with the Shinigami to bring them back to life in exchange for five years of time, only for the Soul Reaper to swindle them and hold them for longer than he was supposed to, eventually escaping thanks to Akari summoning Minato and Kushina's souls, which loosened his hold on the pair long enough for them to return to life, as per the contract between the Reaper and Minato.

A lot of people were pointing fingers at Akari thanks to the fact that her brother mysteriously had his eyes returned to him, making them ask about whether she could return souls to their corpses, but she put a swift end to those rumors, claiming that her ability could return somebody to full condition, but couldn't bring the dead back to life, and would permanently drain Akari of her health, a great excuse for not running around healing the entire village of their woes, whilst still leaving the opening for helping in extreme cases, sacrificing her own lifespan so she could save others. The public lapped it up freely, everyone loves a good self-sacrifice story after all. A few were still sceptical, but with the majority in her favor, she didn't need to heed them.

Of course, it made basically no sense, since Kushina wasn't anywhere near the site of Kurama's sealing, she'd died due to the immense strain that Kurama's extraction placed upon her, mixed with birthing Naruto right before that, but fortunately, people didn't seem to remember that little fact. What Akari did receive was a request from Hiruzen, sent through Inoichi Yamanaka who had apparently used a Clan Hiden technique to communicate what had happened in Konoha, to come to Tetsu no Kuni and retrieve him then take him back to Konoha after the treaties were all signed.

She decided that in fact, she hadn't listened too closely to when exactly they wanted her to arrive, deciding to go straight there. Of course, Hiruzen would know what she was up to, but for the chance to grin at Onoki and know that, unlike last time, she'd be able to whoop his ass was totally worth the Hokage's ire. She Hiraishin'd to her marker as far north-east in Kusa no Kuni as she could, knowing that it would be faster to reach Tetsu no Kuni by cutting through Taki no Kuni rather than travelling from Konoha.

It did mean she'd have to be damn careful she didn't get attacked by any Taki-nin, but that wouldn't been too much of an issue.

* * *

When she said it wouldn't be too much of an issue...the writhing colossal tree certainly wasn't accounted for.

Mentally she elbowed Kurama, getting his attention. **"Hey, don't jus-...oh."** She normally would have smirked at his reaction, but she was a tiny bit distracted watching a branch snap out and shatter the heads of three Taki-nin who got too close. There were a few squads of nin who were volley-firing Katon Jutsu at the tree, but it seemed to be doing fuck-all to the living wood.

Well, living in the sense it was actually moving...but moving like a mobile...oh fuck it. Gnawing on her lip, Akari tried to justify not helping, despite knowing that this looked like the sort of thing that had the potential to be quite dangerous. If she left it alone, maybe something interesting would happen later on? Or maybe because she ignored a game event it would grow strong enough to destroy the world?

Shrugging to herself, Akari threw down a Hiraishin-marked stone, then distributed a few more every kilometre or so as she breezed past Takigakure towards Tetsu no Kuni. She could just tell the Hokage what was going on in the land of Waterfalls, see how he wanted to spin things. Maybe they could get ahold of the Jinchuriki for Chomei as payment for saving their bacon? Though with Gyuki and Kokuo disappearing from her inventory, maybe that wasn't such a good idea if somebody else was Bijuu-hunting, and had some means to access her inventory.

Perhaps there was a second...'player' in the Elemental Nations? Akari shook her head, the notion was extremely unlikely. The Entity wouldn't have done something like that without informing her. But why would whoever did it decide to do it now? If it was actually 273, why didn't he do it before? And if it wasn't him, then who the hell did it, someone she didn't know? Because her inventory was supposed to be secure, but if a regular Shinobi had a way to steal from it, then what was the point? Growling, Akari tossed down another stone with more force than necessary, ignoring the small crater the rock made as she passed it by.

She had a Hokage to pick up after all.

* * *

"I...see."

Akari stretched out, having gained access to the Village where the peace talks were on-going and intercepted Hiruzen returning to his temporary residence after a day of presumably negotiating peace-terms. "So, I don't know what you want to do about it, but it seems weird. Plus...Gyuki and Kokuo disappeared." The old Kage's eyebrows shot up. He knew she had an inventory, he also knew that it was supposed to be untouchable by other people, something Akari herself had access to, nobody else.

She hadn't told him that Kurama could access it, there was no point. "Well, if Takigakure send a request for aid, we would be foolish to not lend a hand in return for fair compensation. They wouldn't give up the Nanabi though, not unless their entire village was at risk of being destroyed." Tipping her head to the side, Akari nodded.

"I mean, it was a giant tree which looked like it had gained sentience and started smashing things that got close. If it managed to uproot itself and start actually traversing, with the village having been literally built around it, they'd be destroyed if they don't stop it. So anyways, enough of that, how long d'ya think we've got left before these negotiations are over?" Hiruzen sighed, puffing on his pipe.

The cloud of smoke that rose made Akari roll her eyes. Even now he was showing off by making the smoke thicker than it should be, little tricks which also served as his constant practice, letting him maintain his Chakra Control despite literally just puffing on a pipe to what other people saw. "Only one, maybe two days left. If you were to accompany me to tomorrow's negotiations, under the cover that you are returning me to Konoha for an important meeting by using your Hiraishin, that would give you good reason to be present, but would also be an admittedly less-than-subtle show of power to the other Kage's."

Smirking, Akari toppled backwards to relax against the cushion of the sofa. "I guess. I mean, I never observed any of the other Kage's, so I don't know how they match up to me, but I still reckon you could beat them. Since I'm confident I could beat you, that's, well, a pretty basic idea of I beat you, you beat them, I beat them as well." Sighing, Hiruzen tapped his pipe a few times, lighting more tobacco with a Hi Yubi no Jutsu.

"As long as you don't start a fight with Onoki over his height, I think we'll be alright."

* * *

Despite her urges, Akari did manage to keep herself contained to only two height-related sentences whilst talking to the other bodyguards of the Kages.

While the Iwa-nin didn't look too pleased about her words, the Kiri ones certainly seemed amused, as did the Suna-nin. The Kumo-nin were too busy glaring at her to care, probably angry that she'd basically stolen their Bijuu and she wasn't planning to ever give them back, if she still had them of course. Since Kiri only lost manpower, something that with their notoriously-violent graduation exam was made clear they cared little for, the Kiri-nin were able to appreciate a good joke, ignoring the fact that she'd killed at least a hundred Kiri-nin with her actions.

She paid absolutely no attention to Hiruzen's negotiations with the other Kages, diplomacy was never something that caught her interest, and since she'd already been in this room bodyguarding for the Hokage's negotiations once before, she really just wanted this to get done with so she could go find out what the hell was happening in Takigakure, the idleness was killing her.

As Onoki stood up, balling a fist and slamming it against the table, Akari tuned back into what they were arguing about, a grin on her lips. "-hen on top of that you have the gall to bring the one in question here?! Practically dancing in our faces the fact that you have stolen our Bijuu from us!" Hiruzen pointedly did not smirk there, even if Akari could tell he wanted to. Onoki always did get angry during negotiations, at least from what she knew, since this was twice in two peace-talks that he'd gotten angry.

"Perhaps you do not recall who exactly gave those Bijuu to the other villages for the intents of peace?" Akari blinked. Hiruzen was...oh shit, he was going for it. "Perhaps, much as a mother disciplines her child, if the Bijuu are merely being used as weapons of war, then those same weapons should be taken from hands who would use them and placed in the arms of those who would ensure peace?" Hiruzen waved his hand to the side.

Akari had to admit, that was a pretty great way to rile people up. Why exactly Hiruzen was doing so...that was not as clear. "Our terms are simple, and after speaking to Kazekage-san here, he is in agreement. The relinquishment of all Bijuu to Konoha's holding. In return, financial restitutement will be given to the Hidden Villages most afflicted by this conflict." Onoki's face looked almost like a spluttering fish rammed into a brick wall.

"Y-you call this a fair deal?!" Hiruzen chuckled, the pressure in the room rising as he puffed at his pipe.

"Fair? No. Do NOT forget, Tsuchikage-san, that it was your villages who started this war, and OUR village who stopped it. If you wish for a fair deal, we would be demanding compensation on top of control over your Bijuu, plus economic restrictions and levies for warmongering. Or have you forgotten exactly why you were so reluctant to continue this war?" Though he didn't look, the other Kage looked at Akari.

Giving a smile and a finger-wave, Akari observed each of their reactions. Onoki obviously loathed even looking at her, whilst A had a thunderous expression, probably because she'd killed his brother. Surprisingly, Yagura, the Jinchuriki for Isobu, looked at her with a calm expression, probably reflecting the attitude of his nin that those who she killed were simply too weak to survive, and that by fighting so many and willing revealed that she was strong, which most Kiri-nin respected. He was probably not happy about the idea of having to having his Bijuu extracted, but since Konoha had displayed their fangs and horns, goring Iwa and preparing to do the same to Kumo, maybe he was the kind of Kage who would sacrifice his own power for the sake of his village?

Whatever the case, it was clear Iwa and Kumo both heavily disagreed with the idea, even if Suna obviously were amicable to it, Konoha were the ones pushing it, and Kiri seemed to be going along with it. "You come here to this place of negotiations with threats and demands? You have grown heavy-handed on your old age Hokage-san." The deep voice of A spoke, though Hiruzen met his words with another laugh.

"Yes, I have become...harsher in my old age. But, with my village being set ablaze for a fourth time in my life, enemies picking at our borders like vultures to a corpse, and our strongest fighter a seventeen-year-old Jonin? I feel that at this point, being heavy with our dealings is my only chance to see peace in my lifetime, or the lifetime of my son and grandson, where they do not have to grow up living, breathing and drinking warfare as Akari-chan here had to, alongside hundreds, if not thousands of other Shinobi, giving their lives at such young ages, trampling on the dream of the Shodai Hokage."

Tuning back out since she was getting bored of all the chatter, Akari focused on her left palm, puffing a small dragon the size of her hand into existence, much to the surprise of the other nin around her. "Oh relax, Kiyo here wouldn't hurt a fly...unless I wanted that fly hurt." As if emphasizing her words, Kiyo twisted up and sat on her palm, the little dragon's head resting on her body as her onyx eyes peered around the room.

Sure, having a literal dragon just appear out of nowhere might be a bit...aggressive, in terms of diplomacy. But, if asked, Akari could quite honestly say she brought Kiyo out because she was bored. Plus, she was cute, and, y'know, a dragon. Who didn't want to have a hand-sized little dragon to pet and adore? **"Foxes are still better."**

She grinned at Kurama's words, speaking in her mind. "Well if you want to come out and relax you're welcome to, I've got plenty of Dango for ya." Kurama took her up on her offer, appearing beside her with a second puff of smoke, irritating Onoki even more than before. He gave a dismissive look towards the Kage in the room, turned his nose up at Kiyo, then climbed up Akari's arm so he could sit across her shoulders. "I swear, why do you like sitting there so much?" He merely grinned at her.

"That's beautiful." The Kiri Kunoichi spoke up, her eyes transfixed by Kiyo's as the dragon turned and yapped at her, exposing rows of sharp teeth. Smiling, Akari made a passing gesture, the Kiri-nin's eyes widening before she extended an arm, allowing Kiyo to hop across the gap and hand on her outstretched arm, carefully keeping her claws from jabbing the nin as she perched there, her neck twisting in a bird-like way to peer around curiously. "So...how does it work?"

"She." Akari said pointedly, tossing another ball of Dango over her shoulder for Kurama to chew on. "Kiyo is a she, not an it. I don't care if I just summon her from nothing, every time she's the same dragon, with the same personality, so...it'd be like calling a summons animal 'it', they have feelings after all." She snorted as Kurama dipped his head down to snatch the entire stick of Dango out of her hands. "Greedy guts." She muttered, getting and annoyed clawing at her ear for her troubles. "But...I don't really know. I mean, I think it works mostly on imagination. If I pictured a two-hundred-foot tall bipedal lizard to appear, it would, but it'd also drain a lot of Chakra."

The Kunoichi eyed Kiyo curiously, raising her arm and observing her scales, eventually raising her other arm to brush against the dragon's head, getting a half-purring, half-chirping noise from the dragon as she ran a hand across her scales. "Well, she's beautiful." Her words obviously got to the dragon, since Kiyo started tipping her head up and standing about as regally as a hand-sized dragon could, making Akari snort.

"Now you've done it, she's gonna be all snooty now."

* * *

**A bit of a short chapter with some filler, yes, but it's also tying up the war, giving Hiruzen a bit of the limelight with his righteous anger at the other villages.**

**We don't know much about how Yagura acted before Tobi hit him with a Genjutsu, so this is his 'true' personality. Someone who protects his village above all else, even his own strength, willing to give up his bond with the Sanbi if it meant Kirigakure was safe. Since he's a true Jinchuriki and able to communicate with Isobu, I'd imagine the Bijuu would be happy to go to Konoha, since it meant he would finally be able to relax without being used for warfare constantly.**

**I think Hiruzen demanding every Bijuu be returned to Konoha since they were being used as weapons of war, not for maintaining peace, is reasonable. Plus, with Akari being so strong, and everyone believing that Konoha also have the Eight and Five-tails, the other villages know they are majorly disadvantaged.**

**Hope you enjoyed, next chapter Takigakure is going to get some attention, things are going to go bad, and the story will move to its final conclusion, before Akari goes to other Universes to have some fun.**

**Today's story recommendation is Kenji the Shinobi Craftsman by Redwall6921, the story of a guy from our world going to the Narutoverse and assimilating with a boy who collapsed, the pair becoming something new and deciding to use their newfound abilities to open...a shop! It's what inspired me to put the newest addition into my profile moshpit, so go check it out if that interests ya!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 149**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 83,888****/****149,000**

**To Next Level: 65,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.33/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 599,625 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 26,450/m - 440.83/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 115**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 115**

**Luck - 100**


	53. Chapter 53

**I did plan to add Takigakure to this chapter, but got too distracted, so now it's next chapter, sorry if you were excited about that boos!**

**Going to explain something real quick, why will become clear. Akari is a weak sensor. She can feel Chakra signatures vaguely, but with a group, she'd stand no chance of telling how many there are, it'd be a massive blob to her, nor can she identify someone by Chakra aside from Naruto, because she feels his signature every single day.**

**She does, however, possess essentially a chakra-based sixth sense. Humans can tell someone is behind them in a vaguely-noisy room because they hear an audible difference as someone moves left to right, so subconsciously their brain tells them someone is behind them even if they didn't notice the audible difference.**

**Akari subconsciously does the same, as do all sensor-nin, allowing them to react, or in the case of a familiar signature, temper their reaction to being surprised. If you knew somebody was nearby, you wouldn't be as surprised when you got ambushed, it's kind of like that.**

**You'll see why I'm bringing this up during the chapter, don't worry.**

_**Chapter 53**_

* * *

Running her Rolling Table, Akari avoided stepping on a pothole while she was distracted.

The Hokage had practically curb-stomped the other Kage's during his 'negotiations', but things had yet to be finalized, so they were staying in Tetsu no Kuni for one more night. Since it involved more than two villages, things had a tendency to get twisted around and confused sometimes, requiring a little finagling to get everything sorted, with plenty of hired help running around behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly, nobody wanted to piss the Five Kage off after all.

She could have taken them both back to Konoha, then returned them the next day, but it was easier to just stay until it was done, since all Hiruzen would be doing would be sleeping, and maybe getting an hour or two to talk to Minato before having to return, better to handle everything at once. Plus it meant she had an opportunity to wander around the reclusive village and take in the sights.

With the Three Wolves Mountains dominating most of the sky, snow belting down to cover everything perpetually in snow, Akari honestly felt like she was in heaven. It was cold, it was windy, and it was snowing, all three things Akari adored! Sure, warm weather was nice to relax, but cold weather was so much more satisfying. Shaking snow out of her hair, she grinned as Kiyo peeked her head out of Akari's collar, then made a snarling noise and ducked back into the warmth of Akari's vest.

Kurama was quite happy to remain draped over her shoulders, the cold didn't have much effect on him, and seeing snow was a novel experience for him, Konoha rarely saw proper snow-fall since the aptly named Land of Fire was too warm for it to stick around. She watched a squad of Samurai pass her by, only the leader of the group giving her a passing look as the group marched by, the others all focused, eyes straight ahead.

She resisted the urge to follow and observe them, their really rigid way of discipline rankled her the wrong way. Being a Shinobi offered a lot more freedom than being a Samurai after all, having to follow explicit orders, learn really boring techniques, then get stuck endlessly marching through a snow-covered landscape for days and weeks on end. Their Chakra blades and projection techniques were pretty cool, but, though she'd never properly used it, Akari was able to do that through her knives thanks to a scroll she got years ago for her Protection Duties quest.

No, she was way happier as a Kunoichi. Besides, Samurai resolutely refused to use Chakra for techniques. They used it for their swords, but other than that, they never did anything, only using the Tenketsu in their hands to channel their Chakra into swords for usage. Why they didn't branch out and use Jutsu was really silly, since apparently they followed the teachings of Ninshu that Hagoromo invented, but in a totally different way to Shinobi.

It was just...fucking stupid. They were denying themselves a powerful repertoire of weaponry simply because they believed Ninshu lay in the spiritual side, not the physical side, of Chakra. Even though they then used Chakra offensively by channelling it into blades, firing crescent arcs of it out as ranged attacks...it just made no damn sense. Akari shook her head, brushing a hand through her hair to clear it of snow. If they wanted to be idiots, that was fine by her. Sure, they were skilled at Kenjutsu, all of them, but Akari could still win quite happily by just using her Sharingan. Even if they were all extremely-skilled at Iaido, she was faster than even the fastest blade-strike...if she dropped her limit on her speed of course.

At her standard combat-speed Mifune, the leader of Tetsu no Kuni, would possibly be able to strike faster than Akari could dodge. Maybe, she'd never fought the man after all. But he was also vastly older and more experienced than she, so that was to be expected, especially for a man strong enough to hold Tetsu no Kuni together amidst Jutsu-wielding Shinobi villages constantly waging war. But, for as good as the man was, if she enabled her Sharingan and moved at top speed? She doubted even Hagoromo would be able to intercept her before she could land a blow or three.

As the Rolling Table came to a stop, Akari read the title of the item, humming.

**Chaotic Immovable Necklace - Wearing this Necklace grants the temporary perks 'Chaotic' and 'Immovable'.**

**Chaotic: Imbues physical attacks with Chaos Damage modifier, granting a chance to strike with a randomly selected type of Elemental Damage alongside physical damage.**

**Immovable: Aids user in standing when taking heavy blows, 95% resistance to knockback effects.**

Those two abilities were admittedly exciting-sounding...until she looked closer and realized they both were actually kind of useless. Chaotic sounded like great fun for punching someone and having her fist launch flames across their body as well, but aside from the novelty, if Akari actually needed to win a fight, she would just stab them with the Kusanagi.

Immovable would certainly be useful...if she didn't already have a hundred points of strength. The only things which stood a chance of knocking her down were Bijuu or extremely large Chakra Beasts. With the necklace on, not even a Bijuu wouldn't be able to push her back. Akari still threw the necklace on, tucking it in under her vest where Kiyo batted at it playfully a few times, making her smile as the dragon peeked back up, resting her head on the cusp of Akari's vest.

It sucked that Kiyo really didn't like the cold much, but hey, even dragons had to have flaws.

* * *

As soon as the peace-talks had officially came to an end, Hiruzen came right to Akari, the pair disappearing back to Konoha.

She decided to bring them back just outside of Konoha's main gates, that way he could make the return through the gates and re-ensure everyone that the war was officially over. Maybe she should have brought his escort back wit him though...nah, too much effort, they could walk back. She subtly snickered at their misfortune, but she wasn't a taxi-service, only VIPs got Hiraishin deliveries...and Naruto, of course, as the most important of VIPs.

Akari didn't know exactly what was going to happen with Naruto now that Kushina and Minato were back, since he was actually their son, Akari just adopted him because they'd both died. But Akari was sure it'd all get figured out somehow, right after the rest of this business was wrapped up. She hadn't told Hiruzen much about Minato or Kushina's sudden return, even if the knowing glint in the Hokage's eye told her he knew she had something to do with it.

He didn't know exactly what, even he wasn't omniscient, but Akari was confident in saying he would likely figure it out on his own, or a version of it. While the old man was one of the few people she'd trusted with even the basics of knowledge involving her Game, she still had that distrust of telling people anything that could be used against her. Even knowing she had his backing didn't help to imagine if word got out about what she possessed. Couple that with her Sharingan, Rinnegan, the fact she was a Jinchuriki...if another village could ever get ahold of her and contain her...she didn't even think a word longer on that line of thought, it...scared her.

Approaching the gate of Konoha, Akari was about to disappear, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. "People already know about your Hiraishin, is it so hard to believe that you would be used to bring me back?" Sighing, Akari shook her head, reaching her arm to pat Kiyo on the head for support. She never was one for the limelight. She whooped ass, sure, but being congratulated and having lights shown at her for her actions just didn't suit her.

"Okay..." Akari narrowed her eyes, glaring at the old man when she realized his game. "You're doing this to get revenge for me making you walk through Konoha and not telling you how Minato and Kushina came back, aren't you?" The Kage puffed at his pipe, making a very similar noise to an Uchiha, his 'hn' sound making her growl, walking faster so she didn't have to look at him, all the while carefully shifting Kiyo out of her vest and onto her shoulder, since they were now long-gone from the cold of Tetsu no Kuni. Kurama wasn't happy, only nudging enough to allow the little dragon a tiny perch.

He probably saw Akari's shoulders as his real estate for lazing around, and he wasn't happy sharing it, even with a dragon. Eventually, Akari gave up trying to get Kiyo settled on her shoulder, Kurama grinning at her as he reclaimed the space. Wit ha mean grin of her own, Akari plopped Kiyo right onto his head, making the fox yip in surprise. Kiyo then jumped off his flailing head and onto Akari's head, curling up and sitting down with her head glaring down at Kurama.

She hissed at the fox, who returned it with a growl, the pair glaring each other down until Akari bopped them both on the head. "If either of you starts a fight on my head and shoulders you're both being forced to walk." That got them both to at least look away from the other disdainfully, though Kiyo tilted her neck to peer at Akari with her face upside-down.

Gritting her teeth, Akari didn't give in to Kiyo's cuteness, though she did raise a hand to brush her head with her finger. "I still can't believe you managed to create such a creature." Hiruzen spoke. Smiling, Akari nudged Kiyo's head so she was back up atop Akari, ensuring the dragon didn't fall off as she turned to look at the Kage.

"Well, I made this didn't I?" Akari waggled her left hand. "Oh, right, speaking of which..." Akari focused a little of her immense Chakra reserves, changing it to a mix of lightning and fire Chakra, then pushed it into the seal on her arm, much to Hiruzen's confusion. "I...uhh, now that I have all five Natures, if I just pushed my natural Chakra into it, it'd become white. So I wanted to test it by pushing Katon and Raiton Chakra into the seal. That should mean that when it runs out of the old Chakra and uses the new stuff...it should retain the normal orange colour. If not, I can always write a seal which overlaps an orange-tinted Henge over the surface of my hand."

Nodding in acknowledgement, the Hokage said nothing more, the pair of them approaching the colossal gates of Konoha. As they got closer, the gate guards obviously recognized the Hokage arriving, a crowd forming as word spread like fire that he was already back. People probably took note of the fact he had only one person escorting him, but when they recognized Akari, they likely pushed those thoughts aside.

As they entered the village, Hiruzen greeted a lot of nin by name, reassuring everybody that the war was over, peace had been attained again, though subtly he was smirking at Akari every chance he got. As for her, well, she didn't much like such dense crowds, especially not those who were thanking her for being the one to end the war, questioning whether she could maybe heal someone they knew who was wounded in the war, things like that.

It probably helped that Kiyo and Kurama were both not exactly being friendly to those who tried to get closer, that helped keep the crowd back at least a little. "I swear I'll get you back for this." She mumbled just loudly enough for the Hokage to hear, his only reaction being the corners of his lips turning up in amusement. "Maybe a persistent bird decides your head is the perfect place to drop nuts...or just drop things in general." Now it was Akari's turn to react as Hiruzen lost his smirk. "Truce?"

The man nodded. "I concur, a truce."

* * *

When they reached Hiruzen's office, the noise the Kage made seeing his desk actually clear of paperwork cracked Akari up something fierce.

The Shadow Clones who had handled the work disappeared one after the other, the Hokage taking his seat with a sigh. "So, you want me to fetch Minato and Kushina? When they came back, I kinda offered them my place to live since their old place got torn down." He nodded, allowing Akari to disappear in a flash, appearing in the living room of her place, immediately smelling food cooking in the kitchen.

Walking in, she controlled herself enough to not stab Kushina with a Senbon as the redhead suddenly wrapped her arms around Akari. She'd forgotten how physically affectionate the older Uzumaki was. Naruto was certainly one to adore cuddles, but she'd spent seven years living with him, so she was used to him, whereas she hadn't seen Kushina in years, which meant her sixth sense for Chakra signatures identified her as unknown.

Still, after she tucked away her Senbon, she wrapped her own arms around Kushina, subtly breaking free of her grasp when she began to get a little uncomfortable. Plus, she wanted to see exactly what Kushina was making. "Aww, Akari-chan, I have seven years to make up for..." Rolling her eyes, she gestured at the living room.

"Go hug Naruto then, I'm more interested in whether my kitchen is going to go up in flames, which...it was, you should have waited and asked me how this damn thing works." Akari fiddled with the knobs on the oven, preventing it from doing anything drastic. Kushina knew how a stove worked obviously, but the actual wall-oven was a mystery to her, it having only been invented after their deaths. "You're lucky I came back when I did or you would have actually set this place on fire." She said in a super-serious voice.

Then a few moments later grinned at the panicking woman, calming her down. She saw the swing coming but didn't bother moving out of the way as Kushina bopped her on the head. "Idiot, getting me all panicked like that! So, did I set it up right?" She asked a little more sheepishly. Humming, Akari twisted one knob around.

"Well, you didn't turn the fan on, and it was too hot so it would have burned whatever food you tried to cook in there, but for a first try, close enough." Akari hadn't actually remembered that because they'd been dead for seven years, there was going to be a pretty major culture-shock, new inventions throwing them off as they wonder how things like, well, ovens worked.

Akari did not look forwards to teaching the pair how microwaves worked. "Well, Hokage-sama wants to see you two, he'll probably drag me into this. Is Minato upstairs playing Fuinjutsu with Naruto?" Kushina snorted, lifting a pan off the hob and switching it off, then leaving the kitchen.

"This is Minato we're talking about sweetie, having his son point out a mistake in his signature Jutsu...well, you could have asked him to be more tactful." Akari raised her hands in surrender, it wasn't her fault Minato hadn't actually incorporated different weights into the Hiraishin, which is half the reason she became so nauseous when being transported through his variant.

She then grinned. "Also, I didn't tell him to do that, I'd just told him how irritating it was that I had to rework his Jutsu to work for me. Him telling Minato was probably him trying to corral the man into teaching him Fuinjutsu...uhh, Kushina?" The redhead turned to face her at the base of the stairs. "Do you...did you and he ever talk about when you'd teach him the Hiraishin? Because I don-." She bit her tongue. Naruto wasn't hers anymore. She shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Kushina frowned, but didn't press, just heading upstairs while Akari slumped onto the couch. That was just the big thing, wasn't it? Naruto wasn't really hers, he was Minato and Kushina's son, not hers, she had no right to say what he would and wouldn't be taught, that was their decision, they were his actual parents after all. Gritting her teeth, Akari wrote a quick note telling them where Hiruzen wanted them, then closed her eyes and transported herself to one of her markers at Takigakure.

She needed a distraction, so a massive, sentient, mobile, human-killing tree sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

* * *

**I know, I know, short again. Next chapter Akari starts digging in for what'll be the final major fight in the Narutoverse.**

**She's acting irrationally, yes, but don't forget, Akari has been looking after Naruto for 7 years now. Minato and Kushina would never separate the two, not a chance, but Akari sees how Minato is already making up for lost time, Kushina is cooking in the kitchen, they're a family...Akari feels like an outsider now, especially being seven years disassociated with Minato and Kushina. They aren't family, they don't have that immediate connection. That's her thought process anyway. It's not true of course, Kushina and Minato both adore her and would happily accept her, but, well, Akari still feels that way.**

**Today's recommendation is The Gallant Gamer Gal by xBUBBA1995x, a story of a girl who commits suicide, creates a character where she's got two very interesting parents, then gleefully becomes a badass, gets trolled by an AI, and a bunch of other awesome things I've forgotten. It sadly got synopsized at the end due to a buildup of problems I think, but it's still an incredible story!**

**Hope you enjoyed!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 149**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 83,888****/****149,000**

**To Next Level: 65,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.33/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 599,625 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 26,450/m - 440.83/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 115**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 115**

**Luck - 100**


	54. Chapter 54

**7.6k words...meep.**

_**Chapter 54**_

* * *

Slipping into Takigakure was even easier than Tetsu no Kuni.

Not because Akari had mysteriously gotten better at stealth, no. It was because nobody even tried to stop her. Scanning the walls surrounding the village, Akari found them barren of life. Behind them, in the distance, she could see the colossal tree, though it was far less active than before, probably because there were none left for it to battle against, the higher branches twisting and curling in random ways.

She walked up the wall, hopping straight off the other side and steadily approaching the living tree, her hands in her pockets as she skipped along at a decent pace. As she got closer, she saw several of the branches up high begin gathering in her direction, the tree probably had a way to detect Chakra signatures and defend itself. Kicking off the ground, she crossed to the side as those branches stabbed down into the ground, the sheer mass of the tree giving them incredible force.

If she could catch one, her new necklace might have meant it wouldn't force her back, but there were quite a few branches, more coalescing together and rocketing out, forcing her to quickly zip backwards as they slammed a massive area collectively, digging a giant circular crater into the ground. **"Akari, be wary...I feel my siblings...all of them, but they are...tainted. I don't know what has happened here, but...it reeks of manipulation."**

With a sigh, Akari pulled out one of her Kyokai-Sen scrolls from a holster, sweeping it open then laying her hand on the centre of the scroll for a few seconds, steadily pulsing her Chakra into the seal. After a moment, the centre flushed green, then yellow, finally settling on red. Grinning, Akari rolled the scroll back up, winded her arm back, then tossed the scroll as harshly as she could towards the centre of the tree.

In her head, she counted down the seconds until detonation, the tree's branches snapping out at her scroll as it flew. "Awh, that sucks." She murmured as a branch managed to pierce the scroll. It was still going to detonate though, just not where she wanted, as her vision flashed light, a few seconds later nearly deafening her as the explosive went off, a detonation vastly more powerful than a GBU-43/B bomb, all contained within a scroll that fit into the holster on her leg.

It only caught the branches of the tree, the body of the tree itself protected from the explosion, but she could tell the tree was pissed off when it actually started throwing attacks at her so furiously that the entire colossal thing began tipping over. Realizing quickly that it was falling right towards her, Akari waited a few moments to make sure it was actually falling instead of leaning, then took a Hiraishin stone and threw it with all her strength outwards, ninety degrees from the way the tree was falling.

She waited to feel the marker had stopped moving, then gave a cheeky wave to the tree before teleporting, leaving the giant husk of wood to thunderously collapse on nothing emptiness. She picked the stone back up, tossing it in the air, snatching it, then dropping it into her inventory along the other few dozen stones she had. With her hands quickly stuffed back into her pockets, Akari approached the fallen tree, keeping out of reach of the branches which were still questing for her. "So, got any ideas boo?"

**"I...have a suspicion."** Akari kept approaching, letting Kurama decide whether to tell her or not. She kept a wary, Sharingan-filled eye on the branches as they began trying to spear her again, making short hops to either side to avoid the attacks. **"I...believe this could possibly be an attempt to reform the Juubi, perhaps even the Shinju."** Whatever Akari was expecting, that certainly wasn't it, surprising her.

An enterprising branch tried to impale her during her distraction, but she shook her head and avoided the attack, quickly slapping an explosive tag onto the house-sized branch of wood as it retracted, exploding it into shattered fragments. "Wait, the Shinju, so, the tree that Kaguya ate from, right?" She avoided another combined strike of several-dozen branches by using another Hiraishin to dash sideways, starting to get used to the rather simplistic attack style the tree adopted.

**"Yeah, the Shinju was what Kaguya stole a fruit from. She then merged with it to become the Juubi, got defeated by my father and his brother, then got split into I and my siblings. Though with the return of the Juubi's body as we saw when you slew Obito, somebody has been pulling strings behind the scenes."** She hummed her agreement, spawning a few dozen Shadow Clones, each with enough Chakra to fire several Great Fireball Jutsu's.

As a wave of flames erupted as each clone performed the hand seals, the tree lashed out, using branches to sweep the fire away, keeping the main trunk safe. "That doesn't explain how Gyuki and Kokuo disappeared though." She knew Kuruma didn't have an answer, of course, she was just thinking aloud so he knew what she was thinking. "Oh whatever, let's just smash this damn...tree. Well, that's not a fun sight."

Indeed, seeing the hovering form of the Shinigami was certainly not what Akari expected from this little mission to go crush a colossal tree. **"Mortal." **He spoke, his words crackling and unpleasant to say the least. **"You have stolen from me, what was paid must be recouped."** As he spoke, Akari faintly became aware of the fact somebody else was here, keeping a wary eye out with her Sharingan, but seeing nothing. **"One soul must be given, for services rendered. Yours, or the soul of the mortal who invoked me."**

"Yeah, and while I'm at it, why don't I also give you Kurama, Naruto, and everything else. Here's some news buddy, fuck you." Maybe antagonizing a Death God wasn't a great idea, but...if he was able to, wouldn't he have just gone to Konoha and pulled Minato back to wherever he was supposed to be, or just stolen Akari's soul outright. It was therefore likely he was unable to directly interact with their world.

After all, he was only meant to take the souls of the dead, not the living. **"You will regret your actions."** Was all he said, floating backwards towards the tree. On a whim, Akari threw a Senbon at him, unsurprised when it sailed straight through the spectral being. Frowning, Akari looked around as she felt a shiver run up her spine, but nothing else was visibly there. Perhaps the Shinigami had some kind of ability to make ghosts torment his target, making them uncomfortable or something?

She was more interested in the fact that the giant tree seemed to almost be...shrinking, and turning brown, as opposed to the dark oak colour it was before. **"Uh oh. Akari...you remember how I told you to never summon my father?"** Blinking, Akari nodded. **"I've reconsidered. You may only summon my father if you are about to fight the Juubi."**

"WHAT?! Oh, that's not good." Akari mumbled, her eyes tracking the tree as a colossal sharp-toothed mouth appeared on the side of the shrunken tree, large spikes similar to conch shells sprouting from the largest mass, while arms rippled out on either side of the mouth, slamming onto the ground and hoisting the giant creature up. "Kurama, you think you can give me a boost, make your pops a bit stronger when I summon him?"

**"Let's do it!"** She felt Kurama's Chakra flood her body, raising her Chakra bar immensely. They hit their regular limit of three million points, which was just barely past the point of severe but not crippling pain for Akari, then kept going, forcing her body through great strain but reaching just over four and a half million points of Chakra before she gave in and used her eye, gasping out the name Hagoromo Otsutsuki as she grit her teeth from the burning pain of having her Chakra coils bloated and stretched so much.

The man appeared in a puff of smoke, looking around in confusion for a moment before his Rinnegan-filled eyes settled on Akari. "This...was not expected. Child, what have you-" He stopped, his lips frowning as he looked behind himself at the Juubi. "I see, this is certainly not in line with what was foresaw." Akari couldn't help herself, she giggled despite her pain. "Does what is beginning to happen amuse you?" He asked, his voice sounding honestly curious, though with a little fury.

She shook her head. "Not what's happening, just the fact that I've really fucked this timeline up. Man, if the Entity could see me now, he'd probably wonder what the hell is going on." Though Hagoromo was visibly confused by her words, he merely shook his head, turning to face the Juubi as its arms cracked back and forth, the colossus trying to move itself. "So, Kurama said he thinks that someone's bringing back the Juubi, but...he's not in there, so how is it awakening?"

Hagoromo's expression got a shade darker. "It isn't complete. Something has manipulated the soul of my mother, torn the portion of her soul away from Kurama...it's forcing her to awaken, but in a weakened body. Without Kurama's Chakra, the Juubi would be missing a great deal of its strength. I must ask, Child, could you perhaps summon my brother alongside me?" Akari winced, remembering the burning feeling of forcing her reserves open so much.

"I could, but I'd be pretty useless in a fight afterwards. Either that, or he comes back with way less Chakra than you, as in, less than half?" The man shook his head.

"Bring him as you are now, and while you do so, please explain how this ability works so I may better understand our limitations, as I can feel your Rinnegan was not responsible for this reincarnation of ours." Nodding, Akari did so, laying out exactly what advantages and disadvantages the two brothers would now have, at the same time as she summoned Hamura Otsutsuki into the fray. When she brought up the ability to summon three spectres, Hagoromo looked thoughtful. "Perhaps we could garner more assistance by summoning my younger son, Asura. He would be useful for suppressing the Chakra of the Juubi."

Humming, Akari shrugged, summoning Asura Otsutsuki as well, her Chakra dipping once again. At the same time, Hamura had gotten his bearings, the two brothers both watching the Juubi attempt to get used to its malformed body. She helped the son of Hagoromo to stand, grinning when he gave her a smile. "Akari-san, I would recommend you stay back, this battle will leave the region ravaged, and while I commend your reserves, you would likely be overmatched in this fight."

Akari rolled her eyes, her left arm flipping a Kunai as her eye flashed with the Rinnegan, spawning the King of Hell behind herself. "Don't worry, I can just heal any damage I sustain, plus...-" Akari whipped her hand down, slicing a good carving through her right arm, wincing slightly at it. Holding the bleeding wound up, she then formed several hand seals, using her Mystical Palm Jutsu to seal the wound right back up, not even leaving a scar. "-I'm not exactly a pushover for healing myself."

Hagoromo watched her for a few more moments, his brother settling a hand on his shoulder. "Alright young one, but...I beseech you to keep yourself safe, not just for your sake." He pointedly looked down at her midriff, making her smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Kurama would be the first to tell me if I was getting on over my head." As she spoke, Kiyo peeked out of her vest, deeming the area safe. "Oh, and this little one would probably bite me if I went and got myself seriously hurt." Pulling Kiyo out of her vest, Akari spoke quietly to the little dragon. "You ready?" The dragon gave an emphatic nod, disappearing into smoke on her hand. Akari turned to the side, extending a palm to help control where exactly Kiyo spawned. "Animal Path." With a cloud of smoke, a far larger Kiyo appeared, her head the size of Akari's entire body. "So, let's go whoop some ass." Akari said, trotting over then hopping up onto Kiyo's back.

Hagoromo shook his head, Asura laughing while Hamura merely focused on the Juubi, which at this point had managed to settle itself, growing several more haphazard arms to stabilize itself. "Well, let us start this battle off with, as I believe the younger would say, a bang." Hagoromo dead-panned, his hand raising towards the sky. "Chibaku Tensei." He intoned, with a black sphere firing out of his palm and ascending, large clumps of rock ripping themselves from the ground and flying towards the tiny black point far above them like bullets. Massive, building-sized bullets.

Beside him, Hamura raised his own hand. "Tengai Shinsei." His Jutsu made the sky cloud over swiftly. Looking up, Akari saw a giant meteorite dropping towards the Juubi. It was clear Hagoromo's son, while he knew his father was powerful, underestimated his strength, as he was stood gasping at the colossal floating rock Hagoromo was forming.

"Hey, cutie!" All three of the Otsutsuki's turned their heads to look at her, making her giggle and look towards Asura. "Youngest cutie." The two brothers turned back, Hamura grumbling something unsavoury under his breath. "Get on, I'm guessing you're a bit less strong than those two?" The younger man shook his head, a smile on his lips as he jumped up onto Kiyo's back behind Akari.

"I have the...what would you even call it...I can make wood grow, which father told me was good for draining Chakra from his Bijuu in the event they rampaged for whatever reason." Humming, Akari bid Kiyo to start flying up and around, keeping her distance from the Juubi whilst letting them see as it's eye locked onto the Otsutsuki brothers and roared, thundering towards them.

It then got smashed into the ground as Hamura's attack struck, flying past the still-forming attack of Hagoromo and crushed its head into the floor. Akari couldn't hear what the two brothers were saying, probably smack-talking to each other, but she didn't miss when the Juubi's head rocketed back up, roaring louder than before and wrenching one of the spikes off its back, launching it at the pair in a frenzy.

Using the Sharingan, Akari could see they'd both split away from the other to avoid the attack, Hamura making a movement to approach the Juubi while Hagoromo held back, his palm still extended towards the sky, making the already-huge boulder constantly increase in size.

As if recognizing the danger, the Juubi roared again, its eye glaring at Hagoromo before charging, forcing the Sage to begin evasively moving around, whilst at the same time he swept his palm down, the huge satellite seeming to realize gravity was a thing as it began to drop, picking up speed as the rock, which was larger than the Juubi itself, thundered towards the beast.

It looked up, the mad eye spiralling around as it looked around in a panic, meaning it was still stationary as the construct crashed into the ground, shaking the earth beneath them. Akari asked Kiyo to fly near enough to let them see how the Otsutsuki brothers were doing, but a massive gust of wind negated that, as Hagoromo cleared the air with a sweep of his hand, revealing that the Juubi was now pinned under the rock, its body sprouting arm after arm which snapped trying to make the beast rise.

It honestly looked a bit like a malformed turtle with a rock for a shell. She saw the two brothers look at each other and nod, the pair of them each rushing the beast and slamming their hands against its head, making it screech in defiance, the rock on its back crumbling as spikes sprouted through it, though Akari noted that the beast was shrinking. "So, you gonna go help 'em?"

Asura merely gestured an arm at the scene. "How can I help them when they seem to have things in hand?" Akari shrugged, asking Kiyo to take them closer so they could get within hearing range of the two brothers, which the dragon did, responding to her request with a trill. "So, how does this creation work?" Akari resisted the urge to spin around and slap the man behind her.

Cutie or not, you don't insult an awesome and adorable dragon by calling her 'it'. "First off, she, not it, or I will kick you off this dragon. Secondly, she's basically a summons animal, but way more malleable. I can summon her hand-sized, or bigger than, well, that thing!" She pointed at the shrinking Juubi. "But that would leave me in a coma unless Kurama supported me, so...yeah."

Kiyo swept over the two brothers, landing behind them in a trot, Hagoromo turning from the writhing Juubi to look at them with a frown. "Child, we may have a problem here. The Juubi is being forced through evolutionary stages by...something. If it reaches the final stage, it will awaken our mother, and we do not have enough Chakra to fight our mother as we now are, even if she were weakened. We do, however, have a chance to seal the beast again, as it is still merely like an insane and incredibly powerful child." Raising an eyebrow, Akari waited for the ball to drop.

When it didn't, Akari tipped her head to the side. "Okay then, but...wait...hang on, you said that the soul of your mother had been forced into the Juubi?" Hagoromo nodded, his eyes flicking to the Juubi for a moment as part of its skin cracked apart. "Then, can't you just use the Rinnegan's Human Path technique to rip her soul back out and, I dunno, make the King of Hell eat it?" Hagoromo stared at her for a moment, then looked back towards the Juubi.

"We had hoped that we could merely contain her until she finally decided to stop fighting and move on the Pure Lands...-" Hamura answered for his brother. "-but she never did, clinging to life within the Gedo Mazo upon the Moon. I fear that this time, her soul will have to be truly destroyed, for she will not listen to reason." Hagoromo closed his eyes, as did Hamura, though his hand found its way to his brothers shoulder. "You know she will never give up her lust for destroying this world and reclaiming her Chakra, brother."

With a sigh, Hagoromo patted his brothers hand. "I know." He turned to look at Akari. "This may burden you, but I must ask you, Child, if you could bear the burden of containing what is left after our mother is destroyed?" Akari blinked, looking down at the seal on her abdomen.

"Uhh, I mean, what about Kurama? I don't want him to get over-written by whatever this is, so...I don't know if I could like, release him from this seal, take this husk thingie in, then have Kurama take it over or something?" Hagoromo chuckled at her, making her stop and stare in confusion.

"I assure you, I would never cause harm to one I see as my own son. I must admit, it...warms my heart to know that one truly sees him for what he is, not what he was made from." Akari blushed, sheepishly scratching her neck. "Regardless, we would remove our mother's soul from the Juubi, leaving it without control, an empty body so to say. Kurama could then take this body over, without hindrance or fear of being assimilated by our mother. Without her mind driving, the body cannot do anything but exist." Humming, Akari asked for Kurama's opinion.

After all, it was he at risk here, Akari knew that Hagoromo probably had a seal mapped out for containing the Chakra, he'd done it once before after all. **"I don't mind, it would ensure nobody ever tries to use the Chakra of my siblings against you. Plus, if I ever left the seal, I'm fairly sure I'd be fine, nobody would be able to touch me. Aside from you and father of course."** Smiling, Akari nodded at Hagoromo, telling him Kurama's response as well as her own.

At the same time, she dipped her head to avoid a flailing tentacle limb which tried to take her head off, drawing the Kusanagi and slicing the fleshy appendage off. "We should probably also get to work before that thing reconstitutes itself. I'm guessing you want to do a double-chambered one-way seal at first, then pivot the finished seal into a single-chamber to let Kurama move in at his leisure? Because if so, we're gonna have a hell of a time making sure the entry-bridge doesn't break down from how much Chakra is gonna be pumping through this thing." She took in the dropped jaws of the three Otsutsuki's with a raised eyebrow. "What? It's not exactly complicated."

Hagoromo was the first to recover, a smile on his face as he...oh that was cool. he was literally drawing the seal out in the air using his Chakra, whilst at the same time from his other hand he was creating a seal-tag, inscribing it with lines. As she watched, she analyzed what it was going to do, the basis for it being to absorb Chakra. He'd even managed to compress the Chakra-storage component so it fit on the small tag but still able to contain more Chakra than her own seal, which was pretty necessary since the Juubi wasn't exactly small.

While he did this, Asura was hard at work forcing large trees to grow around the Juubi then bending them down over the main body, a large ribcage of wood forcing the Juubi to stay on the ground, whilst more trees grew around the area, acting as an AoE effect against Bijuu Chakra. Hamura was aiding him, constantly destroying any limbs that sprouted to try and tear away the wood.

Akari wanted to help them fight, but she had her own role, writing a second seal on herself where Kurama would end up after assimilating the Juubi's Chakra. She settled on her left bicep, both because Calligraphy was easier with her right hand and because she liked the idea of having the seal on her bicep, it just looked nicer. Heaven forbid she didn't have the seal in an awkward place to reveal. Bearing her midriff wasn't exactly something she liked doing, especially when wearing a Jonin vest, it made her feel a little vulnerable, even if she knew she could whoop pretty much anyone's ass.

With deft fingers, she got to work, scrawling a rectangular shape, then beginning to inscribe seals, compress them to as small as they could go, then write more seals. If she fucked this up, she'd lose her arm at an absolute bare minimum, so, above every other seal, this one had to be absolutely perfect, to the point she had both her Sharingan and Rinnegan active, practically glaring at her arm as she wrote seals on herself.

At one point she saw Hagoromo look up and frown, making her panic for a moment as she went over every inch of the seal again to make sure it was absolutely perfect, but he just shook his head and chuckled, getting back to his own work, leaving Akari confused for a moment before she shrugged it off and kept writing. A thunderous explosion attracted their attention as the Juubi forced a colossal amount of Chakra into its back, cocooning it under its flesh then exploding it, rending the wood to nothingness. As it tore itself upwards to try and fight, Hamura dropped a second meteorite on the beast, forcing it down with a scream and giving Asura a chance to recapture it.

As he did so though, Hamura took a stumbled step, his leg disappearing under himself as he used up the last of his allotted Chakra bringing down that second meteorite. He merely looked at Hagoromo for a moment before his face faded, a gentle smile on his lips. "Rest well brother, I'll be seeing you soon." Hagoromo said, inclining his head even as his arms endlessly worked to write two simultaneous seals out.

Asura then began forcing more wood to cover the Juubi, burning off Chakra as he formed wood to ensure it didn't break free a second time, since now, the one meant to aid him had disappeared. Fortunately, thanks to the fact he hadn't needlessly entered the earlier fight, he had Chakra to spare. The Juubi attempted to pull the same trick, but this time Asura caught it, sending several lances of wood to pierce the bubble of Chakra forming on the Juubi's back, rendering the explosion far smaller than if it was allowed to build up.

The beast shrieked in fury as its back was ripped apart by an explosion a second time for no pay-off, its face contorting as it madly focused on everything it could, writhing and contorting constantly as more hands attempted to grasp away at Asura's wood. He made each piece sprout thick spikes to hinder the Juubi's efforts, forcing it to expend more energy healing those same hands.

As Akari wrapped up the seal on her arm and flash-dried it, she clicked her fingers. "I'm gonna go help keep that thing down, how long are those going to take?" Hagoromo inclined his head, releasing the seal-tag in his hand with a flourish, making it float towards Akari.

"That one is finished. This one however-" He spawned a large elaborate scroll into existence from his free hand, laying it on the ground and pressing it open with his foot, continually working on the primary seal. "-will take a minute more. Go, now, before it breaks free!" Attesting to his words, the Juubi shattered several large branches of Mokuton wood with a cluster of hands all working in unison to tear away at them.

With a hand seal, three clones, each with fifty-thousand Chakra Points, appeared beside her, the three of them forming hand seals. One formed the seals for the Goryuka no Jutsu, one the Furyudan no Jutsu, and finally, one formed the Rairyudan no Jutsu, each one spitting forth their dragon in three different natures, the three dragons each spinning around each other as they flew towards the Juubi.

She didn't bother thinking of a name for the combination attack as all three dragons smashed into each other right at the eye of the Juubi, burning a lance through its 'head'. The noise the Juubi made was utterly inhuman, it even made Akari shiver just hearing it, though her clones were undaunted, pushing the three dragons through the Juubi. All the hands on its back retracted as it grew more inside the hole the dragons made, trying to snatch, punch, claw, or just generally tear at the dragons as they ripped a colossal hole through its body, smashing out the back of the mass then each curling back around for a second attack.

With the Juubi open to attack, Akari created another two dozen cheaper Shadow Clones, giving one the seal Hagoromo gave her, each clone knowing her plan. Without a word, they darted off, each clone giving as much cover as they could to the primary seal-wielding clone as they approached. Thanks to the fact it was now blind, her clones had no problem reaching the body of the beast, her main clone leaping up and slapping the seal against the Juubi, the beast screaming loudly enough to cause damage to each of her clones and burst them, her tri-dragon wielding clones following suit.

Their disappearance caused a large explosion as the three unstable dragons merged together, the fire and wind elements fueling each other whilst the lightning merely added plenty more damage to the mix. Her lightning-fused and wind-enhanced flames spread to Asura's Mokuton trees, though he was already disappearing from using too much Chakra, giving a smile and wave to Akari as he disappeared, his trees crumbling to nothingness. "Oh, let's not forget..."

Akari bolted forwards and stabbed her arm into the Juubi, focusing her Rinnegan into the Human Path, being momentarily stunned by the maelstrom of souls flowing within the Juubi. There was one there though that didn't even remotely match a human soul, which she quickly snatched a firm hold of, tearing it out of the beast with a wet and fleshy ripping sound.

As she held the soul of Kaguya Otsutsuki in her hand, she felt the same spine-crawling sensation as before, but this time, as she looked around, with the Rinnegan enabled and in Human Path, she could see an outline. That was all, just a faded white outline stood behind her, seemingly watching her. Deciding to focus on that for a moment, Akari turned to fully face the weird...spectre, she supposed was apt for it.

But, staring at the figure, Akari began putting things together in her head. Two scrolls disappearing from her inventory. The intervention of the Shinigami. The Entity going silent. Without even a moment's hesitation, she whipped her hand into her inventory, taking hold of the item the Entity gave her, then brandishing it towards the Spectre, grinning as it took a hurried step backwards. "273, I fucking knew it! Fuck you you fucking prick!"

Akari didn't totally know what the weird box she was holding was, but she had a pretty good feeling that she knew how to use it. By throwing it as hard as she fucking could at him! She, therefore, wasn't too surprised when it slammed into his chest before he could even do a thing, peeling itself open slowly to reveal a white light which nearly blinded her vision. Nearly being the keyword, she watched every satisfying moment as the white light almost seemed to burn away at 273's outline.

After a few second, the box closed, with 273's outline gone, the box folding in on itself and disappearing. "Huh...well that was easy." She tilted her head. Then again, 273 definitely wasn't doing nearly as much as before, so he was probably severely limited in what he could do, going so far as to trying to graft together an enemy which would be strong enough to kill Akari, making a deal with an irate Shinigami to get ahold of a soul who should have gone to the afterlife, the same one she was now holding. "So then, what to do with you..." She swished the soul from side to side, finally shrugging and spawning the King of Hell. "Hope you're hungry, this bitch is probably quite filling."

With a casual toss, the King of Hell's mouth snapped out a pink tendril towards Kaguya's soul, wrapping tightly around the ethereal white mass and wrenching her into its mouth, jaws clamping shut as the big...thing disappeared into smoke, taking Kaguya's soul with it. While this was happening, the Juubi finished sealing into the tag attached to it, Akari snatching it up and planting it in her inventory for safe-keeping, heading back over to Hagoromo. "Mission accomplished, Kaguya is now being digested by the King of Hell, the one who started this whole thing has been dealt with, and the Shinigami is, well, I can't do much to a Death God yet aside from frown at him if I meet him again."

Nodding, Hagoromo extended a hand towards her. "The seal please, the Juubi must be sealed first." Shrugging, Akari plucked the tag out of her inventory again, giving it to the man even as he kept up with the final stabilization for the seal. She watched with unhidden curiosity, taking apart each section he added in her mind. Hagoromo wasn't known as the Master of Fuinjutsu for no reason after all.

Pointing a finger, Akari swept it next to one portion. "Wouldn't it be better to loop this section back into itself, having it stop here would destabilize it, right? Oh, but then where would it loop to not cause an overflow...yeah no you were right." Hagoromo kept working, though a smile came to his lips as he did so.

"I presume you too are well-versed in Fuinjutsu?" Akari pulled out her second Kyokai-Sen Fuinjutsu tag, laying it down. "Hmm...I see. You could perhaps make this more efficient if you ran a secondary series of feedback loops through the-" Akari shook her head. "Why...ahh, I see." The pair talked shop for a little while as Hagoromo finished up the seal, pressing it into the large scroll he had prepared, the lines making contact with a hiss. He then took the tag he had placed on his knee and pressed it onto the seal, channelling Chakra through the seal and coaxing the transferal process to start. "This should take at most five minutes, so would you like to begin releasing Kurama so he can enter the seal?"

Smiling, Akari did so, though that smile turned to a frown as she sat down and crossed her legs. "Well, I guess this'll be goodbye for like ten minutes. It's gonna be weird not having you piping up in my head constantly or snoring." She murmured as she opened up her seal, allowing a steady but considerable flow of his Chakra to pour forth and form his true corporeal body.

It wasn't enough to really hurt her, but it was still painful feeling that much Chakra flowing through her coils. As his body coalesced into the form of a colossal fox, Akari let herself fall backwards with a sigh, grinning as his head appeared above her. "Nip my ear in that form and I swear I'm shoving Kiyo up your ass." Kurama laughed deeply, a thunderous noise which made her grin widen, her eyes softening. "You ready for this boo?"

He smirked, showing rows of razor-sharp teeth. **"As if I'd ever turn down such strength, especially strength enough to know that I could never again be sealed by mortal means outside of you and father, my Chakra would destroy any normal storage seal."** Humming, Akari couldn't help but agree. Even without Kurama's Chakra the Juubi had so much to spare, literally forcing a flood of it out of its back as an explosion, twice!

She watched Kurama approach his father, dropping down so he was closer and could watch, a smile coming to the old man's face as he finished pressing the Juubi's Chakra into the seal then lifted the large scroll and brought it to Kurama, laying it down beside his paw. "Simply channel your Chakra into this point here when you are ready, then it should be a simple task to assimilate the rest of the Juubi's Chakra, as you yourself were born from it." Kurama looked at Akari, giving her a grin which she returned with a wave and a loudly-yelled 'good luck', before he planted his paw down on the seal.

He immediately began being sucked into the seal, the sight making Akari look away. It looked like it hurt Kurama to be absorbed like that, and Akari wanted nothing more than to just stop the whole thing and hug him, but that wasn't an option. So, gritting her teeth, she forced herself to turn back and watch every moment. If Kurama had to deal with this, Akari could put up with watching him do it.

A hand resting on her shoulder told her that Hagoromo had moved beside her while she was fixated on Kurama's sealing, a soft look in his eyes. "You...really do care for my son. For that, I thank you. I know he has not been treated well in the past, nor was he treated kindly until...well, what would have happened has now become what will never happen, so it doesn't matter."

Smiling, Akari patted his hand with her own. "Well hey, at least he'll be safe now. I mean, who would dare mess with the most powerful beast in the Elemental Nations...or her Bijuu?" Her words made the old man guffaw, covering his mouth as he recomposed himself. "But...seriously? I'd go to war with every single village if it were one day announced that Kurama was too dangerous to be left alive...he doesn't deserve to be hunted and hurt like he has."

"Even Konoha?" His words brought Akari up short. Konoha was home. Konoha was Naruto, and Minato, Kushina, Anko, Komachi, Sei, Kana...everyone! But Kurama was, well, Kurama. He was always there, making quips, lounging around on her shoulders chewing on Dango, playfighting with Kiyo. She bit her lip, her eyes watching as Kurama's tails disappeared into the seal.

"I don't...if Konoha decided Kurama was a threat and had to be eliminated...I'd run. I wouldn't be able to fight them, but I wouldn't stand by and let them kill him out of fear. Even if it would hurt so much to leave behind everybody I know, I'd do it for him." She announced, her eyes drifting away from the seal to focus on Hagoromo's Rinnegan-filled eyes.

There must have been something he liked there, as his smile widened. "You know, when you first brought me forth, I was afraid that the prophecies being wrong would allow our world to be destroyed...this outcome is better than any other that was foreseen. I would like to offer you a...a boon." Raising her eyebrow, Akari blinked in surprise when Hagoromo held his palms out, creating a Kunai in his hand.

He hadn't unsealed it or anything, so how he did it was a mystery. Then she recalled he did the same thing with the sealing tag and the big scroll. "Okay, that's pretty cool. And...my Sharingan has no idea how you did it...neat. is it a Kekkei Genkai?" Hagoromo chuckled even as he shook his head, the Kunai on his hand dropping to the floor with a thud as he overturned his hand.

"This technique is a little too advanced for your Sharingan to copy, but it is not a Kekkei Genkai. The Banbutsu Sozo no Jutsu allows for the creation of matter by using Yin Chakra to bring Imagination to reality, then imbuing that creation with life using Yang Chakra. Of course, a Kunai is not alive, but to create, say, a Tailed Beast, one would need to imbue that body with life. That is, after all, how I created the nine Bijuu." Humming, Akari watched him create another Kunai, this one also being dropped to the floor.

As he repeated the action a third time, it clicked for her, simply through watching him repeat the action. It reminded her a little of the Nara's Shadow Puppetry, but on a way more advanced scale. She stuck her hands out and focused. The first step, after all, was to completely de-nature her Chakra, make it neutral. She needed Yin and Yang Chakra, not Katon or Doton or any other nature.

While Akari tried to replicate this feat, Kurama was finishing up his 'meal' of devouring the Juubi, adding its power to his own. When he was finished, he tore his way back out of the seal, still just as fox-like as ever, though with a tenth tail now adorning his body. He had some weird black marking as well, but they didn't seem to actually do much aside from be there and look cool.

With a sigh, Akari gave up trying to do the Banbutsu Sozo for then, knowing she had plenty of time to practice. Plus, if she really needed help, she doubted Hagoromo would mind being summoned to help her out a little. "Now then, we shall begin resealing Kurama into your seal. Are you both ready?" Akari nodded, Kurama doing the same. After looking between the pair, Hagoromo nodded, stepping back and waving Kurama forwards to press his nose against the seal on Akari's arm.

Immediately her Chakra coils burned, as his far more potent Chakra flowed through her system, the pain making her curl inwardly on herself. Akari formed hand seals as quickly as the pain would allow, using the Mystical Palm no Jutsu to ease his passing through her system, acting as a painkiller to take at least the edge off the fact it felt like someone took a pan of boiling water and forced the whole thing down her throat in one motion, the water then staying boiling somehow and providing a constant internal rupture of pain.

She felt Kurama slow down a bit, the pain lessening which when then lessened more by her Jutsu turned it from nigh-unbearable to merely extremely painful. Still enough to make her clench her eyes and grind her teeth together, but not so much she wanted to throw a fireball at whoever thought this was a good idea. Hagoromo merely watched, he had nothing which could aid Kurama's passing into the seal. Then, as quickly as it began, it was over. "Kurama, you good?"

**"I SHOULD BE ASKING THAT QUESTION!"** Akari jumped slightly at Kurama's loud, furious voice. **"I swear, I want to punch my father in the face right now for not warning us."** Smiling, Akari brushed a hand against the seal on her arm. It was...good to have his voice back. Losing him, even for only ten or so minutes...it made her feel so alone.

"Well...I'm happy to have you back boo." He chuffed, though Akari knew he probably had a blush on his face...if a fox could blush that was. "Hey, you want to come out, see whether your familiar form still works?" Kurama did so, poofing into existence as the familiar one-tailed fox form. "Awesome, glad that feature works, I wasn't sure if the other sections of the seal with render it useless."

As Kurama hopped up her arm then onto her shoulders, she turned to face Hagoromo. "Well, I suppose this is goodbye. My mother cannot threaten this world again, and I can finally rest. I would ask you not summon me again unless in grave need." As he spoke, Hagoromo's hands began disappearing, the man willingly de-summoning himself rather than Akari dismissing him. "And please, look after each other." With a smile, she reached an arm up for Kurama to headbutt, giving his fur a tousle.

"We will...I promise."

* * *

**Phew.**

**That...was both incredibly fun, and super-daunting to write! I know it might feel a little rushed, but...****I wrote over seven and a half thousand words in 24 hours, gimme a break.**

**...Nah just kidding boos, I loved every moment. Kiyo is adorable, Kurama is an awesome fur-baby, I feel like Hagoromo's interactions with Akari suited him, Asura is cool and so is Hamura, and just...the way things were handled, I think at least, were acceptable. Akari hasn't checked her notifications yet so no exp, yadda yadda.**

**There'll be a few more chapters, possibly even only one or two, and then...that's it, the end, finite. Akari will start going to other places, so please, do go and vote on the poll, it's at the top of my profile. Right now, one Universe is winning by a colossal margin, so better get voting!**

**Today's recommendation is Playing Our Roles by The Grim Blade. It's a story of a man who takes over Roman Torchwick's body five years before Canon, alongside having the power of the Gamer. Hijinks ensue. My only problems with it are that it only releases a chapter once a month, and those chapters are often shorter than mine! But hey, it's still awesome!**

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**(Extra: As a warning, Chapter 55 is going to be far, far shorter than this, to the tune of sub-2000 words. I just...didn't have any nice way to end the story, so I want to ask. Would you boos rather I call this complete here and now, or upload the Chapter 55 I currently have and have that be the final chapter? because I feel like the final words Akari spoke were a nice, sweet ending, but it doesn't tie anything off. Then again, the way I tie off the story in 55 kinda sucks anyway.)**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 149**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 83,888****/****149,000**

**To Next Level: 65,112**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.33/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 599,625 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 26,450/m - 440.83/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 115**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 115**

**Luck - 100**


	55. Chapter 55

**This one is a lot shorter...because I couldn't find a good ending.**

**Yes, this is going to probably be the final Chapter for this story. Akari is going to be moving on and entering another Universe by the end of this chapter, but it's quite short since...well, you'll see.**

_**Chapter 55**_

* * *

Returning to Konoha was oddly...anticlimactic.

Granted, Akari only intended to go smash a big living tree to pieces then come back, but the fact she'd just taken down a beast which was on it's way to becoming a god only to return to home where nothing was out of the ordinary? Well, aside from the fact people were panicking thinking the world was ending...turned out that all that roaring stomping and meteorite-striking set off a lot of natural disasters.

On top of that, the Juubi's Chakra was potent enough that it was clearly felt as far away as Konoha. It was probable that even sensors in the Land of Key would have felt it. Konoha was being evacuated, everybody going to the shelters under the Hokage Monument whilst nin filled the walls, wary of an attack. Since she wasn't meant to be outside of the village, Akari did the smart thing and Hiraishin'd herself into her room, immediately feeling that Naruto's room had been locked up tight.

What was curious was that there was a blob of Chakra she could feel on the roof, and it felt like two people, maybe three. Hopping out the window, Akari walked up the side of the building, coming up behind Minato and Kushina as they turned around. Kushina folded her arms over. "Where have you been Akari?" The fact that Kushina didn't even bother to greet her told Akari she was pissed off.

Scratching her neck, Akari just gestured vaguely northwards. "Uhh, I just did a short hop to Takigakure, I wanted to blow some steam off..." When Kushina raised an eyebrow, she decided the full, if synopsized, story would be best. "I...might have ended up fighting the Juubi, meeting the Sage of Six Paths, his brother and son, then sealing the Juubi, tearing the Rabbit Goddess's soul out of the mix and feeding her to the King of hell before Kurama took over what was left and became the new, far saner, ten-tails?"

Minato sighed, pinching his nose. "Only you, Akari...only you." Shaking his head, Minato met her eyes with a frown. "You know that Hiruzen is going to be furious, right?" Akari shrugged, extending her arm for Minato. With a quick clasp of arms, he took the pair of them to the Hokage's office, leaving Kushina behind to coax Naruto back out of his room.

To say Hiruzen was unhappy to hear that Akari had basically just left the village to go fight some world-ending monster without even telling him was an understatement. After being chewed out for it by both Kages, Akari finally got a chance to interject. "Hokage-sama, you remember when you and Kurama had to save me from...273?" Though he was confused why Akari brought it up, Hiruzen nodded. "Well, he was manipulating things behind the scenes. The Shinigami was pissed off that I stole Minato's soul from him, so they were working together to revive the Juubi then force it to evolve to become Kaguya. If I didn't...well, I don't think even I'm strong enough to take on a literal Goddess."

Though they were both still clearly pissed off at her, at least now they understood that she had to do what she'd done. "We'll deal with your punishment after this mess is cleaned up. Tsunade has been making inquiries to getting you under her wing as an apprentice, so you can go to the hospital and tell her yourself why you don't want to apprentice for her." Sighing, Akari left the room with a wave.

They were both probably going to discuss Minato taking over from Hiruzen again. Akari wasn't happy to hear she was going to be reprimanded or something, but she had to admit that she had basically just abandoned the village and gone AWOL for a few hours, especially during a crisis. Even if she would have done it again willingly, it was never fun being told you were in the wrong.

She was honestly just glad that she had chosen to go screw around with Takigakure when she did. If she'd left that too long, Hagoromo and Hamura might not have been able to win...she didn't want to even think about how badly things would have gone for the world if Kaguya was allowed to be reborn, even if she was weaker than normal thanks to not possessing Kurama's Chakra. Akari was strong, incredibly so, but even she knew that a literal Goddess still outmatched her for power. Distracting herself as she trundled down the stairs, Akari opened up her notifications, scrolling through the experience earned, a neat 375,500 since she only got an assist for 'killing' the Juubi, then 500,000 for killing Kaguya's soul.

Akari also got a notification that she had unlocked a proficiency for Yin-Yang Release, probably from trying to recreate the Banbutsu Sozo no Jutsu. Since she'd never used it before, she had to start working at power-levelling that proficiency, presumably she needed a certain level to be able to use the Banbutsu Sozo. She also got changes to certain menus like the fact Kurama was now the ten-tails, not nine-tails, and the wording of certain abilities had been re-written to adjust for this.

One of the most important notifications she saw was that, for some reason, her Fast-Travel system has been updated, giving it infinite range, and even able to, quote 'work across dimensions and beyond!' Well, that would have been useful when Orochimaru kidnapped her, but even then, she already had a solution to that.

Other than that, there was...nothing. No notable information was really forthcoming, it was just general 'you took damage' things. With a frown, Akari closed her menu, planting her hands behind her neck as she stretched, ignoring the nin who were running up and down the stairs in a frenzy. Hiruzen was making a clear announcement to the village in a few minutes, and was sending nin out to get the civilians back out of the shelters now that it was known the village was safe, so why people were still in such a hurry was a little confusing.

Shrugging to herself, Akari summoned a palm-sized Kiyo, Kurama immediately pushing his familiar body out of the seal where he jumped up onto her shoulders, grinning at Kiyo who glared at him then dove into Akari's vest, her claws sinking into the backside of the material as her head peeked out of the collar. With an idle hand, she rubbed Kiyo's head, her eyes tracking a Genin who had just tripped up as she left the doors to the Hokage Tower, sliding a good distance in his haste.

With a sigh, Akari zipped over and helped the Genin up, rolling her eyes when his eyes looked first at her hand, then at her vest, then Kiyo's head, then Kurama's, before finally meeting her gaze, his hand recoiling as if burned. "Maybe slow down a bit, the village isn't going to collapse in five seconds." She spoke with an amused tone, watching him backstep and then start towards the tower again, only turning and running when he got a moderate distance away. "Honestly, people are just...idiots sometimes."

Hopping up a wall and onto a rooftop, Akari swept her gaze across Konoha, taking on all the people running around and frowning. What was interesting was how many people looked at her in confusion and then fear. She didn't look much different, but...it was probably because they were sensors, and Kurama's Chakra now felt the same to them as the Chakra of the Juubi.

But, as Akari walked along rooftops, she then found herself being pulled on, sort of like how her summons described the feeling of her summoning them. She could feel the tenuous connection she had with this summoning sensation, and knew it would be a piece of cake to refuse it, or even to yank whoever was trying to summon her straight through the connection before beating them silly.

Then, she considered just...going along with it. Konoha was safe, and with Minato around, even safer still. Naruto had his parents back, Monty was Anko's now, and nobody else really needed her help for anything. As she considered it, she felt the already-tenuous link get fainter, making her bite her lip in consideration. "Ahh fuck it, if it turns out bad I can just come back with my Fast-Travel." She mumbled, giving in to the pulling sensation, then feeling a feeling similar to the Hiraishin that Minato used, but both worse and better at the same time, making her feel like her body was being put through a washing machine, but it didn't make her nauseous, just really painful and uncomfortable.

She couldn't see anything, it was just a pitch-black journey of twisting, pulling and pain, but after what felt like a few seconds, she found herself spat out upside-down and thumping into something which made a surprised yelping noise, then smacking her back against the ground. Shaking her head, Akari got upright and looked around, tipping her head in confusion. The architecture was...weird, nothing like the buildings she'd gotten used to, and that was coming from someone who lived in Konoha.

Then she remembered she hit something that was probably alive, turning and spotting a boy lying unconscious on the floor, bleeding from his lip and nose, alongside other cuts and bruises Akari knew she didn't cause. As she approached him and activated her Mystical Palm, she brushed aside his hair, noticing the scar on his head even as she began healing his injuries.

"Huh, that's...interesting."

* * *

**Yep, it's Harry Potter.**

**Young Harry at that. You can probably already piece together the rough idea I'm going for, but I won't spoil anything for those who don't know. I'll upload an announcement chapter when I finish writing the first chapter of the new story, but since I don't know when I'm going to start writing it, it could be at any point.**

**I honestly want to thank you all so much for being a part of this journey, I'm hoping at least a handful of you stick with Akari as she goes traipsing through Harry Potter, then through other Universes as they come up.**

**Today's recommendation is "The Games We Play - By Ryuugi" (Uploaded by Chuggapyro, though I'm not too sure about whether or not they even had permission), a story of Jaune Arc becoming the Gamer, getting strong and kicking butt. The best part? It's over a million words long, lovely to enjoy!**

**For the final time in War Dog, but certainly not the last time for Akari...I hope you enjoyed. Please...leave reviews, they honestly mean the world to me, both the good and the bad!**

* * *

**Name: Akari Uchiha**

**Level: 155**

**Age: 17?**

**Experience: 50,388****/****155,000**

**To Next Level: 104,612**

**Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.**

**Secondary Title:**** Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin**

**Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.33/s - (Vit x End) x 2**

**Chakra Points: 599,625 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3**

**Regeneration Rate - 26,450/m - 440.83/s - (Int x Wis) x 2**

**Strength - 100**

**Vitality - 100**

**Endurance - 100**

**Intelligence - 115**

**Agility - 400**

**Wisdom - 115**

**Luck - 100**

_**30 Skill Points Available**_


	56. New Story is Up!

**Hey there boos!**

**As requested, here is the announcement! A Collision of Sorcerous Proportions has been released! Here is the link, and I hope to see you all there!**

**(place it after the net/ in the address bar, Fanfiction won't let me actually link the entire thing. Or you can just go to my profile and scroll down to my stories!)**

**s/13610636/1/A-Collision-of-Sorcerous-Proportions**


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